Today’s works of art is a stained glass sign from the late 19th century. It’s online because a professional photographer, Lar Matre, owns the sign and photographed it. It’s difficult to photograph stained glass, at least in my experience, and it is a great photo, but for my purposes I’m more impressed by the artistry of the signmaker. And I love stained glass, always have. But I imagine seeing the original of this, especially in the context of being at a German bar, would be stunning.
According to Matre, on his website, his “great grandfather bought it in the late 1800s in Germany, or so [he’s been] told.” The photograph itself can be purchased online at Fine Art America.
You can see much more of Matre photos at his website and his Flickr page. As for more stained glass, start with Wikipedia. But there’s also the Corning Museum of Glass, Vidimus and the Stained Glass Museum.
Trust me on this … the original 100 year old stained glass does not look anywhere near as good as the reproduction. It looks … well, about 100 years old.
Many hours went into digitally repairing cracks, missing glass, mis-matched faded color, etc. I’m sure if I had kept track of all those hours, I’d call myself crazy (well, crazier). But it had a lot of sentimental value, and it needed a well-deserved facelift … something I couldn’t do with the glass itself.
Thanks for the mention and links.
Ha, good to know. It certainly looks great now. I wonder what it looked like new? In any event, thanks for putting in all the hard work. Cheers, J