1903 VINTAGE TRAM WINDOW RESTORATION

I've been working on a 1903 Vintage Tram window restoration commission for Bury Transport Museum this week. One of the original windows had become broken over the years, so my job was to engrave a new piece of glass to fit the old window frame that would match up with the Art Nouveau style of engraving on the existing vintage windows.

The original glass was hand blown in two layers, one layer of red with another layer of clear glass underneath it. I engraved the design cutting through the red layer og glass to reveal the clear layer below it.

The two panels are seen below, the original window panel is at the top with my reproduction panel underneath. As you can see the new piece of 'flash' glass that I usedis not quite as dense in colour as the original but it was the darkest piece of glass that I could get hold of at the time. Red flash glass is the most expensive glass of this type due to the fact that gold is used to create this rich red colour.

This image below shows the beautiful colour of the red layer of glass and the rippled effect of the uneven hand blown surface.

I'm not sure if I will get another one of these engraving jobs to do again but if I do you can guarantee that three will come along at once.