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A View from the Temple Wood Building

Glass Coloured Print
mid 18th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.

English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Titles
  • A View from the Temple Wood Building (assigned by artist)
  • The Most Remarkable Views in Earl Temples gardens at Stow in the County of Bucks (series title)
Materials and techniques
Etched glass coloured print in moulded and ribbed black frame, gilt at sight and outer edges
Brief description
Framed glass picture - View from the Temple Wood building. From a set of four views in the gardens at Stowe, British, mid 18th century.
Physical description
Etched glass picture
Dimensions
  • Frame height: 25.7cm (average size of set)
  • Frames width: 35.8cm (average size of set)
Marks and inscriptions
A View from the Temple Wood Building. (Lettered)
Credit line
Given by Teddy Dawe
Object history
RP No. 96/1175

The frames are perhaps Victorian. The finish seems to be a sort of Japanning.
Place depicted
Summary
This is a glass print, sometimes called a glass picture. Its maker had to soak a black and white print in water, stick it face down onto the back of a sheet of glass, rub most of the paper away from the back leaving a thin transparent layer of paper and the ink making the image. The next stage was to colour the image from the back in oil colours. This was then fitted into a frame and the buyer could then hang it up on his or her wall straight away. Because the print is stuck to the back of the glass, if the glass gets cracked or broken, it cannot be replaced.

English writers of artists' manuals describe how to make glass prints from the 1680s onwards. The period of their greatest popularity was from about 1760 to 1790. Much of the appeal of glass prints to shoppers was their relative cheapness compared to framed oil of watercolour paintings, which were entirely painted by hand. Glass prints were clearly made on a commercial basis, because certain prints on paper are regularly found turned into glass prints.
Collection
Accession number
E.595-1997

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Record createdApril 8, 2009
Record URL
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