Makers of mosaic and stained glass. The firm of Josef Gabriel Mayer (1808-93) of Munich opened a glass painting department in around 1860. The firm was soon importing to the British Isles, opening a London office as early as 1865 at 70 Grosvenor Street and thrived internationally under the management of Franz Borgias Mayer (1848–1926), son of the founder. The firm were much in demand, particularly by Roman Catholic patrons, as evidenced by many advertisements in The Tablet, and in 1892 Pope Leo XIII gave the company the title 'Pontifical Institute of Christian Art'. Mayer opened a branch in New York in 1888 and retained a thriving business in Britain and Ireland until it was interrupted by the First World War. The firm, and Munich glass in general, has been regarded as the epitome of nineteenth-century stained glass, while those less inclined towards Victorian stained glass have argued that Munich glass is synonymous with all that is worst from this period. Some signatures use the spelling Maier & Co.
The firm still makes stained glass, often in collaboration with artists such as Alexander Beleschenko and Brian Clarke, as well as restoring historic glass.
Franz Mayer of Munich, Inc. Architectural Glass and Mosaic
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Geoffrey A. K. Robinson, 'Modern German Glass in Munich' Journal of the British Society of Master Glass-Painters, vol. xiii, no. 3 (1961–2), 477–82.
Joyce Little, Stained Glass Marks and Monograms (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002), p. 84.
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