Re: Re: Restoring sash windows

It probably does yes. Don’t get me wrong, I think you’re doing a fantastic job with your windows, and I’ve been reading your posts with satisfaction at your following best conservation practice, including refraining from painting the putty until a later date. Similarly, I despise plastic parting beads with a passion and am shocked at the number of quite high profile buildings where these have been installed. Your past experience says it all really. Indeed a picture or two of what you’re now doing wouldn’t go amiss 😉

However I really do take issue with replicating historic glass. Doing this is quite different to replicating authentic colour schemes or historic building materials – these are design considerations, architectural elements which are integral to the character of a building, as important to its appearance in the present day as in times past. By contrast, crown and cylinder glass in original windows direcly relates to contemporaneous manufacturing techniques. Their presence in a building is important principally because of their survival, not as an aesthetic entity (though yes it can of course be pretty). Indeed I would argue that far from contributing to an historic building, the replication of old glass vastly diminishes the status of original glass in a window, as its integrity as surviving testament to former manufacturing techniques and indeed social hierarchy, is lost amid the array of deceiving reproductions. Essentially, for me, it’s akin to replication exhibits in a museum case. They lack all the impact of the real thing, while an over abundance of such exhibits – as I’m sure everyone has encountered at one point or another – just makes the entire experience meaningless when you have to check every second caption card for authenticity.