The Tiffany windows at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Quincy, IL are a sight to be seen! Bovard Studio fully restored two Tiffany windows and several others after a church fire. Note the attention to texture on the garments and figures. Tiffany utilized the glass qualities to describe form, using herringbone textured glass to give the appearance of feathers for the angel wings and heavily undulating drapery glass for the figure’s clothing.
The windows were removed by a disaster remediation contractor after the church caught fire. After being stored in a warehouse with other church artifacts, the Tiffany Angel window glass was found falling apart in piles across a concrete floor, its weakened condition causing many of the exterior layers of glass to slide from the panel.
It was a challenge to reassemble the window and find proper placement of the plating. Careful study of the intact portions made it possible to return the layers of glass to their original positions on the window. Replacements were carefully chosen from thousands of possible matches and flash glass was acid etched to match existing plating. There was no documentation and very little photography of the windows before removal so the restoration plan was heavily reliant on our extensive Tiffany restoration experience.
All except one of the acid etched pieces was pieced back together and edge glued (though other pieces of glass were also replaced because they were partially or completely missing). The subtle colorations in the robes, background clouds & sky, including the radiance from Christ & descending Holy Spirit dove, were all achieved by selective and precise use of acid to remove color from each layer of colored glass, only leaving it in the locations needed. The result being a full restoration faithful to the techniques of Tiffany.
