Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
New from the Pugin Foundation in Australia:
22 September 2009. Pugin Stained Glass Discovery.
In mid September 2009 work was being done on the church hall adjacent to St Mark’s, Darling Point, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, under heritage architect Paul Davies. In a ceiling cavity above the toilets what appears to be the original Pugin three-light chancel east window was discovered. Because the space was boarded in there was no knowledge of the existence of the glass, which must have been removed from the church in the 1880s when a replacement window was installed.
The window was covered in over 120 years of dust and some sections appear to be missing. Other parts are broken. However, the original cartoons exist in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, so anything is possible. It has been transported to the studio of Mass Vale stained glass conservator Rick Allan. Apparently a miraculous survival, being one of just three Pugin-designed windows in Australia.
Pugin’s design for the glass (Courtesy Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery)
8 October 2009. Darling Point Glass.
It has now been confirmed that the glass discovered last month (see entry below) is in fact Pugin’s window. Some panels have been cleaned revealing richly-coloured work in the English thirteenth-century idiom.
