Panel, stained glass
PETTS, John (John Petts (1914-1991) studied at Hornsey College of Art (1930-32) and the Royal Academy Schools and the Central School of Art (1933-34). He moved to Wales in 1934, where he founded the Caseg Press. He had workshops in Gwynedd (near Bethesda and at Llanystumdwy), Llandaff and Llanstephan, Dyfed. Preferring to be known as a designer-craftsman, he was a painter in oil and watercolour, a wood engraver and a stained glass and mosaic artist. His best-known work in stained glass in the window 'You Do It to Me', the west window of the 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, USA, commissioned in 1965 as a gift from the people of Wales to this black church following a racist bomb attack which killed four children. See 'John Petts', Glynn Vivian Art Gallery exhibition (2-23 August 1975) and catalogue, and Alison Smith, 'John Petts and the Caseg Press' (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000).)
Rectangular stained glass panel comprising 24 sections of glass of various shades of red or purple, mostly coloured glass but at least four sections (those featuring the letters A and G) appearing to be flashed with streaked tones of red and yellow, the lead cames of H profile and with no signs of milling marks, the external cames 12mm wide and with beaded edges, the internal cames 7mm wide and with rounded edges; the design centred on a large G enclosing a lamp, surmounted by an arch of 16 bricks and surrounded (clockwise from the top left) by two 4-petalled roses in an oval female symbol, a bird, the letter A, a tulip, the letter N, a cross section of an apple, a club and a spade symbol in a purple section, a gardening fork and trowel, a flowering rose plant with three 5-petalled flowers and with its roots visible in a cross section of the ground, a diamond and a heart symbol in outline (and so showing red); the design enamelled in black with thick outlines, the ground and modelling dabbed and with visible brush marks.
Acquisition
Gift, 29/11/2000
Given by Dr Anne Letts
Measurements
Height
(cm): 50
Width
(cm): 31.9
Depth
(cm): 0.9
Height
(in): 19
Width
(in): 12
Depth
(in): 3
Width
(cm): 1.2
Width
(cm): 0.7
Width
(in): 1
Width
(in): 1
Techniques
enamelled
decoration
Applied Art
soldered
forming
Applied Art
Material
stained glass
glass
enamel
lead
