Magnificent Pair of Antique Lead-light Windows (ex Saint Michael’s Church, Clare

{roughly} Height - 4 metres x Width - 1.1 metres. 
Oak frames ~ 85mm x 30mm solid timber
 
DETAILED DESCRIPTION 👇👇👇
 
“In the year 1847, St Michael, the Archangel, was chosen to be the patron of the new Catholic Church in Clare.
 
The original church was completed in 1849. By the 1870s, Clare had become prosperous on the back of copper mines at Burra and Wallaroo (…) The need for a larger church arose. 
 
On January 30th, 1883, the Northern Argus reported that the structure was completed. The windows were provided by the members of the church and “of stained glass and quite in harmony with the structure”. St Michael’s was considered to be “magnificent …. and one of the best outside Adelaide”. 
As can be seen in the photograph, the windows were of an unusual design, featuring a series of ascending linked circles of frosted glass with a further series of smaller glass rings moving up within these in alternating colours of deep ruby and Bristol blue flashed glass that was so arranged as to suggest a helix or spiral. The edges of the windows are of the same red and blue, in panels, alternating with a mid-green and a warm orange/yellow. A sacred purple exists as two panels of glass at the base of each window. 
 
The windows are metal framed, using what then, in 1880, must have seemed the most extravagant of modern materials. They are made from an extruded cast alloy of zinc and tin that has been fashioned to provide fine sculptural glazing bars that accurately describe and contain the elaborate circles and arcs of coloured glass. 
 
As the image suggests, the framework has a lightness and balance that could only be achieved with the strength and lightness of a metal alloy. Each point of intersection of the glazing bars is lead soldered and the glass puttied in. 
 
The windows are quite large, each one is about 4 meters high by 1.1 meters wide. They are currently installed in oak frames made from 85mm x 30mm solid timber.”