were cut into the desired shapes and fitted together by leads to form the design. The art deteriorated after the middle of the 16th century until by the 18th century it was lost. Within the past one hundred years there have been various attempts to revive it.
The methods of making stained-glass today are essentially the same as they were in the middle ages, the greatest differences being the use of electricity and modern appliances in place of the charcoal flame and the clumsy tools of former times.
The name of each stained-glass designer or manufacturer found in the "Catalogue of Windows" on page 146 is that of a leader of the art of his own time in England or America.
The old Christ Church on State Street must have had colored windows, for in certain old records it is stated in the plans for the new chancel, finished Easter, 1852; "A stained-glass window in the rear of this chancel is planned." When the building was repaired in 1866, there were put in the chancel, windows probably made by Gibson & Co. of New York, a firm long gone out of existence, (see illustration p. 162).
The original stained-glass windows of the present edifice on Chestnut Street were put in when the Church was built in 1876. It has not been ascertained that they were all memorials. With the wide spread demand for Church Windows, there grew up during the latter part of the last century and the first part of this a host of commercial glass firms in England, Germany and America. It is probable that makers of the windows in the old State St. Church and of the old windows of the present building belonged to this' class. Of these old windows there still remain in place the smaller ones in the transepts, in the aisles of the Nave, and in the vestibule, and the large wheel windows of the transepts and the west end. These are of interest because they represent the earliest type of stained-glass windows in this country. Those who say that they more nearly represent the old blues and reds of ancient stained-glass, than any we have, consider them of historic value.
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