Firm making stained glass and church furnishings based in Lancaster and London. Abbott & Co. were established 1860 by the plumber and glazier William Abbott (died 1904). However nothing of their stained glass is known before 1900. The business continued under his sons and grandsons, and their chief designer was I.E. Singleton, who was still at the firm in the 1950s. Among their designers from 1912 until 1919 (although interrupted by war service) was Joseph Sanders (1885–1933), who had trained at Birmingham School of Art, and the early work of the firm suggests the influence of the Arts & Crafts Movement. By the 1950s about half of all their work was for Nonconformist, and mainly Methodist, churches.
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Joyce Little, Stained Glass Marks and Monograms (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002), p. 1.
Roy Albutt, Stained Glass Window Makers of Birmingham School of Art (Pershore: 2013), 89–90.
Malcolm Seaborne, Victorian and Later Stained Glass Windows in Flintshire Churches (Mold: 1996), p. 4.
Hi, I wondered if you can confirm that the stained glass windows in the Broad St Chapel Reading, a copy of Hunt's 'The light of the world' were by Abbott & Co? They are dedicated to Judy Chandler, one of the first WAAFs to be killed in WW2, but I can't find a date for the window being put in.
Submitted by: Susan Ainslie (2015-08-19 11:31:09)
Editor's response: Without having seen the window I am unable to give an answer to your question, Many stained glass windows were copies of Hunt's 'Light of the World', but few were made after the Second World War. Alternatively, you might find the name of the maker of the window from an archival source, such as minutes books or accounts of the chapel. In the case of Abbott & Co., their windows are included in some of the lists of new windows made by members of the British Society of Master Glass Painters, and published periodically by the Society.
From my research in Wales, very few stained glass windows were installed in the early 1940s, but war memorial windows were being commissioned for churches soon after May 1945, and throughout the 1950s.
I was looking at these very windows yesterday in Reading, and found the date 1943 the makers Mark of Abbot & Co of Lancaster written on the window next to where the cash till currently is – the building is currently as you probably know a branch of Waterstones books
Submitted by: Eleanor Crook (2024-08-18 22:06:59)
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