Windows
Introduction
A window is well defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “An opening in the wall or roof of a building, for admitting light or air and allowing people to see out; esp. such an opening fitted with a frame containing a pane or panes of glass (or similar transparent substance); the glazed frame intended to fit such an opening, sometimes with hinges, a sliding mechanism, etc., so that it may be opened or closed. Also: a similar opening in the side of a ship, train, car, or other vehicle”. The etymology of the term is also outlined by the Online Etymology Dictionary, as originating circa “1200, literally ‘wind eye,’ from Old Norse vindauga, from vindr ‘wind’ (see wind) + auga ‘eye’ (see eye). Replaced Old English eagbyrl, literally ‘eye-hole,’ and eagduru, literally ‘eye-door’”.
The Online Etymology Dictionary develops the reference through the seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries: “Originally an unglazed hole in a roof, most Germanic languages adopted a version of Latin fenestra to describe the glass version (such as German Fenster, Swedish fӧnster), and English used fenester as a parallel word till mid-16c. Window dressing is first recorded 1790; figurative sense if from 1898. Window seat is attested from 1778. Window of opportunity (1979) is from earlier figurative use in the U.S. space program, such as launch window (1963). Window-shopping is recorded from 1904”.
Windows have always functioned as much more than a space in which one may view the outside world. They are the basis through which the outside public may gain an understanding of the private domestic and vice versa. Due to their historical development, they are also brilliant indicators in the dating process of buildings. They represent the class and monetary worth of the buildings inhabitants. In their design and sometimes blocked up faces historical laws and taxes may be observed in implementation, telling a story of the occupants inside and the state of their private affairs. Windows constitute history and are extremely useful tools in accessing the world and histories of those peoples that watched from behind them.
In more detail, the developments of individual style and intricate designs of various windows ascends in a positive correlation with the technical progress of glass manufacturing techniques, framing quality and style, and the advances in building construction. The mechanical systems employed are also very telling in the discovery of the exact history and progressive nature of the building. Designs concerning the glass formations of windows have consistently portrayed this and the social class of the building and its inhabitants. Individual windows have also been used to understand geographical fashions and styles that associate types of buildings with their country or city surroundings. For example, city buildings would exhibit more fashionable wares, allowing local towns, villages and hamlets to develop a form of window corresponding to a feeling of home-grown character and identity. Windows are an outer form of identity projection, exhibiting an individual character that many overlook.
History Through a Window
In order to understand windows in the eighteenth century, it is essential to formulate their earlier history. The district council of Wychavon describes local window history in a guide for their owners and occupiers:
Pre-sixteenth century: “windows were constructed from stone mullions or timber frames with unglazed openings. They could be closed by use of sliding or folding wooden shutters, oiled cloth, paper or even thin sheets of horn. Glazed windows were used only for the highest status buildings”.
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
transom, n.
A horizontal bar of wood or stone across a mullioned window, dividing it in height; also, a cross-bar separating a door from the fan-light above it (Ogilvie, 1882).
Sixteenth century: “Tudor stability and prosperity was reflected in window size. The much larger windows were subdivided into smaller openings (lights). Both stone and timber had vertical bars (mullions) and horizontal bars (transoms) … As glass became more available throughout the century, windows in wealthy aristocratic households became even larger in a peculiarly English tradition”.
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
mullion, n.
Archit. Any of the (usually vertical) bars dividing the lights in a window, esp. in Gothic architecture. Also: a similar bar forming divisions in screen-work or panelling.
Figure 1: This figure is of a famous 16th century, oriel window in the church of St Bartholomew-the-Great in West Smithfield, London. Originally of the 12th century Norman period, the window was installed in the 16th century; its function to observe the activities below without detection.
Seventeenth century: “Windows began to conform to classical ideals at the accession of the House of Stuart in 1603 reflecting renewed contact with Europe and the classical influences of the Italian Renaissance. They became taller than they were wide, typically divided into four lights by a single mullion and transom often of masonry. As the century progressed they were increasingly constructed from timber and known as cross casement windows”.
Eighteenth century: “Introduction of plate glass in the 1770s led to further increase in pane size and reduced numbers of glazing bars, though cost meant this was only for the rich. There was some standardisation of windows for example the Georgian 'six over six' but there was also still a great deal of variation on grand and small houses … Sashes became less expensive and by mid-century they could be found in humble homes, by the end of the century they were standard on even the smallest worker's dwelling. Early in the century they were painted pale colours but from the 1760s black was popular, particularly in ashlar stone or stuccoed houses. Greens, browns or graining effects were not uncommon. On some wealthy houses they were painted black and embellished with gold leaf. Throughout the 18th century casement windows were replaced by sashes. Some survived in small rural dwellings and in late 18th to early 19th century 'cottage orne'”.
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
'sash-' window, n.
A window consisting of a SASH n. or glazed wooden frame; esp. one having a sash or a pair of sashes made to slide up and down, as distinguished from a casement.
Figure 2: This figure is of a modern adaptation of a classical era Georgian house. The lower four windows exhibit the popular ‘six over six’ style common in many eighteenth-century buildings.
The development of window styles and their placement in the construction of different types of buildings thus reflects the development of royal influences and class separations of the various time periods. While larger, previously more expensive window types were becoming more commonplace, the aristocracy had to maintain an outward sense of social superiority through innovative, even more complex and expensive windows that they may install over the old. Figure 2 shows how many people today enjoy modelling their houses within archaic traditions. This change from progression as more desirable to nostalgia as higher class perhaps hearkens back to British eighteenth-century notions of ‘old money’ versus the ‘nouveau riche’. It also illustrates a need to recreate history through maintaining a sense of the grand eras these houses represent – especially the story their windows narrate.
The Window Tax: 1696 - 1851
The Window Tax of 1696 was contextually understood as very progressive and may be thought of as a somewhat socialist kind of tax as it was focused on wealth distribution while avoiding being a form of income tax – a contentious issue at the time. In their section on “Window Tax”, UK Parliament Website offers some information on how this tax was theorised to work in this way: “It was intended to be a progressive tax in that houses with a smaller number of windows, initially ten, were subject to a 2 shilling house tax but exempt from the window tax. Houses with more than ten windows were liable for additional taxes which increased in line with the number of windows. The poorest, who were more likely to live in houses with fewer windows, were therefore in theory taxed less”.
However, website History House explains that it was really “an unequal tax with the greatest burden on the middle and lower classes”. The article goes on to explain the inadequacy of the tax and its impact on revenue: “As early as 1718 it was noted that there was a decline in revenue raised by the tax due to windows being blocked up. It was also observed that new houses were being built with fewer windows. In 1851, it was reported that the production of glass since 1810 remained almost the same despite the large increase population and building of new houses”. Thus, in order to avoid the tax many inhabitants closed up their windows with bricks and other covering materials as evinced in figures 3 and 4. Side by side they illustrate the far-reaching impact of the tax that stretched from Southampton to Edinburgh, and further.
Left: Figure 3: An image of a house in Portland Street, Southampton with bricked-up spaces in place of windows. Right: Figure 4: An image of blocked-up windows in Brighton Street, Edinburgh. Both illustrate the far-reaching effect of the Window Tax and the ways in which people were able to circumvent it.
The issue of blocking up windows and the stagnant sales of glass despite a growing population also made the Window Tax a major health concern for many families living within proximity of one another. The lack of daily sunlight and direct access to fresh air had health ramifications that History House continues to explain: “The complaints from the medical profession and enlightened individuals rapidly grew as the industrial revolution and urbanisation created mass housing and crowded cities, and raised the spectre of epidemics. They argued that the lack of windows tended to create dark, damp tenements which were a source of disease and ill-health”.
Raised public health concerns also surrounded the Glass Tax of 1746, which taxed the sale of glass by weight and did not limit the taxed goods to windows. The medical journal Lancet notes the health concerns with the Glass Tax in particular in the February of 1845 issue:
In a hygienic point of view, the enormous tax on glass, amounting to more than three hundred per cent. on its value, is one of the most cruel which a Government could possibly inflict on the nation; and only to be equalled in cruelty by the duties on corn and the other necessaries of life. Any impost on light is a direct encouragement to disease, and must tend to deteriorate the health of the population generally. Light is as necessary to the perfect growth and nutrition of the human frame as are air and food; and, whenever it is deficient, health fails, and disease appears. This is a fundamental hygienic truth… (The Lancet 214-216)
As with the Window Tax, the Glass Tax led to the widespread production of much thinner glass in order to avoid high taxing. The Glass Tax also led to thicker, weightier glass products and windows being produced for the upper classes and aristocrats as an indication of their status and wealth. The two taxes therefore provided the eighteenth century with a further platform for social division and categorisation of class. Windows and glass became political, allowing the upper classes to showcase their affluence and the lower classes to suffer from health-related issues and blocked up windows. After 156 years with the Window Tax in wide circulation and implementation, it was repealed in England and Wales in 1851. The Glass Tax was likewise repealed in 1845.
Figure 5: This figure is a political cartoon published in Punch Magazine in 1851 following the repeal of the Window Tax. The caption reads: “Hollo! Old Fellow; we’re glad to see You here”.
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of [many grand windows]” (Pride and Prejudice 1).
Published only thirteen years after the end of the eighteenth century, Pride and Prejudice still comments and maintains the primary concerns and class issues of the previous century. The following excerpt illustrates this through Elizabeth and Mr. Collins’ observation of the windows of Sir Lewis de Bourgh’s household and their monetary worth in accordance with the Window Tax of the time. Their understanding of his worth through the windows of his house emphasises the importance of windows in determining class status and monetary worth in the eighteenth century. Particularly in the literature of Austen, class status symbols such as windows are vital in understanding and interpreting the minute nuanced interplay within the marriage market. In a sense, a bachelor is only as desirable as the state, size and design of his windows: “Every park has its beauty and its prospects; and Elizabeth saw much to be pleased with, though she could not be in such raptures as Mr. Collins expected the scene to inspire, and was but slightly affected by his enumeration of the windows in front of the house, and his relation of what the glassing altogether had originally cost Sir Lewis de Bourgh” (Pride and Prejudice 166). Sir Lewis’ windows are so impressive, as they are taxed heavily through the contextual Window Tax and Glass Tax separately. Though Elizabeth notices the absurdity of this observation, she nonetheless engages with it and understands how the state of one’s windows truly affects the perception and desirability of the owner.
Pamela's Many Windows of Opportunity
Samuel Richardson’s 1740 epistolary novel Pamela employs the use of windows in a surprisingly alternative and comical way in comparison to Austen’s social commentary in Pride and Prejudice. Pamela is placed in many situations from which she feels no alternative other than to throw herself from the windows of her metaphorical prison. This occurs on multiple occasions in the novel, establishing the act as an amusing motif:
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“Are there not, said she, enough wicked ones in the World, for your base Purpose, but you must attempt such a Lamb as this! He was desperate angry, and threaten’d to throw her out of the Window; and to turn her out of the House the next Morning” (63).
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“My Stratagem is this; I will endeavour to get Mrs. Jewkes to-bed without me, as she often does, while I sit lock’d up in my Closet; and as she sleeps very sound in her first Sleep, of which she never fails to give Notice by snoring, if I can then but get out between the two Bars of the Window, (for you know, I am very slender, and I find I can get my Head thro’) then I can drop upon the Leads underneath” (168).
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“to set out for I knew not where; and got out of the Window, not without some Difficulty, sticking a little at my Shoulders and Hips; but I was resolved to get out, if possible” (170).
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“Be-sure trust [Pamela] not without another with you at Night, lest she venture the Window in her foolish Rashness” (197-198).
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“A projected Contrivance of mine, to get away out of the Window, and by the Back-door; and throwing my Petticoat and Handkerchief into the Pond to amuse them, while I got off” (227).
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“as I sat, I saw it was no hard matter to get out of the Window, into the Front-yard, the Parlour being even with the Yard, and so have a fair Run for it; and after I had seen my Lady at the other End of the Room again, in her Walks, having not pulled down the Sash, when I spoke to Mrs. Jewkes, I got upon the Seat, and whipt out in a Minute, and ran away as hard as I could drive, my Lady calling after me to return, and her Woman and the other Window…” (398)
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“My poor Dear! said he. But then, how got you away at last? – O, Sir, reply’d I, I jump’d out of the Parlour Window, and run away to the Chariot” (402).
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In Pamela, windows function as the vehicle for desperate escape from violation of virtue and as the primary route for the swift exit of those unwanted in the house such as Mrs. Jervis. The drastic action of passing through a window, unintended for such use also illustrates further Pamela’s unparalleled wish to conserve her virtue. The window is the only way Pamela is able to access the outside world on her own terms and outside the protection and observation of Mrs. Jewkes and her Master. Generally speaking, windows appear in most eighteenth century texts as the divide between the private and the public, as a way through which interior inhabitants may view the comings and goings of their household: “This morning I saw from my window, that Lord Orville was walking in the garden” (Evelina 135); “The instant that, from my window, I saw her returning, I flew down stairs, and met her in the garden” (Evelina 184). Though Pamela adheres to this function, the text is unique in its portrayal of windows as Pamela’s true ally throughout her captivity.
“Stone Walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage..." (Richard Lovelace 25-26)
Figure 6: This figure is a drawing of Newgate Prison by British architect George Dance the Younger and sits in Sir John Soane’s Museum in London. He is known best for his rebuild design of the Newgate Prison structure, 1770-1778).
The role of windows in prisons has been one of necessity, in order to maintain sanity, health and reputation. Newgate Prison was at the centre of controversy and a focal point in much literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (see Dickens’ Barnaby Rudge and the narration of the Gordon Riots that involved Newgate Prison). The need for some inlet of sunlight through a form of window was believed to be a living necessity, but also a privilege that may be retracted for those persons deemed especially notorious for their bad conduct. This is known to us today as solitary confinement. Observable in the image above of Newgate Prison, the lack of extensive windows for inmates to view the environment outside the prison inevitably leads to health issues related to lack of sunlight, such as Vitamin D deficiency.
Therefore, the presence of prison windows and in many cases their lack thereof has been an historical issue for centuries of prisoners. However, the presence of large windows facing the public at the front of the prison open up a conversation on the reputation of Newgate Prison and how the windows functioned as the go-between for those inside and the people who voyeuristically wished to observe and understand them from the outside. This became commonplace when the gallows of Tyburn were moved to Newgate Prison in 1783, instigating a series of public executions in which hundreds of law-abiding citizens attended.
Figure 7: This figure is a book written by John Howard and printed by William Eyres, called: The state of the prisons in England and Wales: with preliminary observations, and an account of some foreign prisons. The section opened to page 13 details the health issues Howard observed and reviewed in his visits to prisons all over England.
Published in 1777, these two pages of the text concern the reader with reports on the prisoners’ lack of access to air through windows or holes in the walls as inhumane and essentially against the dictates of God’s will that give air freely to all as a necessity for life itself:
AND as to AIR, which is no less necessary than either of the two preceding articles, and given us by Providence quite gratis, without any care or labour of our own; yet, as if the bounteous goodness of Heaven excited our envy, methods are contrived to rob prisoners of this genuine cordial of life … AIR which has been breathed, is made poisonous to a more intense degree by the effluvia from the sick; and what else in prisons is offensive. My reader will judge of its malignity, when I assure him, that my cloaths were in my first journeys so offensive, that in a post-chaise I could not bear the windows drawn up: and was therefore often obliged to travel on horseback. (12-13)
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
effluvium, n.
2. c. An ‘exhalation’ affecting the sense of smell, or producing effects by being received into the lungs. In mod. Popular use chiefly: a noxious or disgusting exhalation or odour.
This concern for health and basic human rights violations before God are the same as those raised with the window and glass taxes of the same period. Howard places blame on the tight, unlit and unventilated cells of prisons for the spread of illness and disease, so potent as to transfer onto his own clothing. He also bases the lack of fresh air as a fundamental disregard of the prisoners’ God-given rights as men, despite their criminality. Prison windows essentially constituted life for the prisoner inside. However, some prison structures were considered most effective when window-view and air-flow were strictly controlled, to ensure maximum observation and subjugation of prisoners.
Bentham's Panopticon
In the late eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham conceptualised an architectural structure of observation named the Panopticon. A founding utilitarian philosopher and human, women’s and animal rights advocator, Bentham conceptualised the architectural prison structure of the Panopticon as a form of law reform, to revolutionise social conceptions of criminality and the best method of discipline and punishment. The Panopticon was a social solution and major advancement in to the much harsher, bodily-focused, public torture and horrific execution of prisoners, as with the public executions outside Newgate Prison during the century. The structure of the Panopticon is most widely understood in relation to prison construction, however, Bentham also intended its use in other disciplinary sectors such as schools and hospitals, in order to enable more proficient examination and observation.
The Panopticon is a circular structure containing a large central watch tower from which those in individual cells may be observed at any moment. The key to Bentham’s strategy of observation was in the specific lighting of each cell so as to illuminate each individual while all individuals are unable to visualise the guard or observer contained in the central tower. This leads to a powerful psychological self-discipline, as prisoners do not know when they are being observed, so tailor their actions at every moment under the assumption that they are constantly examined, even if they are not at that instant. The name of the Panopticon is essentially a combination of the all-inclusive ‘many’, with the watching instrument of the ‘eye’. It is also an allusion to the mythical Greek giant, Argus Panoptes, described by the web page on Argus from Greek Mythology as a “hundred-eyed giant” and “the all-seeing one”.
Figure 8: This figure is of the elevation, section and plan of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, drawn up by Reveley in 1791.
The central notion of observation as power and the use and manipulation of windows and lighting are intrinsic to one another, should the Panopticon hope to function to its optimum potential. This relates back to the historical function of windows as the thinly veiled division between the public and the private domains. In the Section XVIII of “Postscript, Part I. Containing further particulars and alterations relative to the plan of construction originally proposed; principally adapted to the purpose of a panopticon penitentiary-house”, Bentham details the role and importance of windows in his construction:
BEING informed, that in a building of this height, and consequently of this thickness, glass would not cost more than wall, my instructions to the architect were, Give me as much window as possible; provided they are no brought down so low as to render it too cold. In consequence, I have two windows in each cell: each 4 feet wide and 5 feet high.
It was Mr. Howard that first conceived the prevailing antipathy to glass: it admits prospect, and it excludes air. Prospects seduce the indolent from their work: air is necessary to life. On any other than the Panopticon plan, the antipathy may have some reason on its side: on this plan, it would have none. Blinds there are of different sorts which would admit air, without admitting prospect: glazed sashes when open will admit air. But blinds, as soon as the inspector's back was turned, would be put aside or destroyed; and windows would be shut: for the most ignorant feel the coldness of fresh air, and the learned only understand the necessity of it to health and life. True: but in a Panopticon the inspector's back is never turned. In this point, as in others, who will offend, where concealment is impossible?
In Mr. Howard's plan, observe what is paid for shutting out prospects. The tall must be kept from idling as well as the short; and a tall man may make himself still taller by mounting on his bed, or standing on tiptoe. Therefore, windows must not begin lower than seven feet from the floor. But above this seven feet there must be a moderate space for a hole in the wall called a window: partly for this reason, and partly to make sure of sufficient height of ceiling, a cell must be at least ten feet high in the inside. Such accordingly is the construction, and such the height, of the cells at Wymondham. (Bentham The Works of Jeremy Bentham)
In this excerpt, Bentham constructs the idea of windows as part of the Panopticon with an understanding of the concerns of John Howard present. They agree, that glass would provide only half of the necessary function of a prison window, for it admits light but not air which are both equally necessary to Howard and Bentham. The manipulation of window design is key to Bentham’s project, for an outside view encourages a mental state of hope rather than work. To Bentham, the prison window constitutes more than a health concern or link between private and public. The Panopticon works in its separation from society and functions to construct a prisoner reality of constant work and observation in the process of criminal redemption.
Around the World in 80 Windows
In 2015, Portuguese photographer Andrea Vicente Goncalves released thousands of images of various windows he observed throughout his travels, naming his project ‘Windows of the World'.
Figure 9: This figure is the section of Goncalves' piece titled 'London, UK' and is used to convey the character and identity of the city. The many 6 over 6 style Georgian windows illustrate the history and tradition maintain in London, encapsulating its fame as an historical city. The commonality of the brickwork in the various images also shows how the buildings are differentiated, made unique and understood through the windows and their state and individual design.
The international nature of windows and their ability to capture the character of individual cities and countries while also being very transferable and globally distributed is best observed in the journey of the Venetian Blind, from the East to the West. Surprisingly, Venetian blinds did not originate in Venice, but had a rich history in the East, from the use of interwoven reeds in Ancient Egypt to bamboo slats in China. They arrived and became popular in Europe around the decade of 1760. Abigail Sawyer’s blog post “Venetian Blinds: A History" explains this journey of design and how it came to be a most prominent design favoured in European nations: “Although the early history of Venetian window blinds is mostly conjectural, they are thought to have originated in Persia, not Venice. Venetian traders discovered the window coverings through their trade interactions in the East and brought them back to Venice and Paris. To this day, the French call Venetian blinds “Les Persienes,” and remain loyal to their true place of origin”.
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
Venetian blind, n.
A window-blind composed of narrow horizontal slats so fixed as to admit of ready adjustment for the exclusion or admission of light and air.
Figure 10: This figure is a 1787 painting by J. L. Gerome Ferris, titled The Visit of Paul Jones to the Constitutional Convention. In the background exist three clear Venetian blinds, indications of the upper-class inhabitants within. Such blinds became popular in America and were visible in many important state and business buildings.
The blinds were first introduced into the United States in 1767 by John Webster and quickly became status symbols for important State and office buildings. The Venetian blind developed its global popularity due to its simple function of excluding or admitting light at will without the cumbersome presence of curtains that were an expensive commodity. They are often cited for their resilient, ergonomic design, ideal for professional spaces. Surprisingly, the founding of St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia in 1758 came alongside its almost complete use of Venetian window blinds. The church’s website section on “History of St. Peter’s Church" explains the Georgian-era construct and how its design mirrored the philosophical sentiments of the age: “Most of the church remains as it was in the eighteenth century. Smith designed it in the mid-Georgian auditory style, with the classical lines and clear glass windows of the Age of Reason”.
Figure 11: This figure shows the eighteenth-century fashion of Venetian blinds in American buildings. This image depicts a Panel from the Ballroom at Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria, Virginia, dating back to 1792-1793.
The fashionable importance denoted from the use of Venetian blinds particularly in America is also noticeable in the following image of the ballroom of Gadsby’s Tavern, Virginia. In their “Timeline of Art History", The Met Museum website explains the history of the room and the important articles in its construction:
The rich woodwork from the ballroom of Gadsby’s Tavern reflects the continuation of the Georgian decorative tradition into the early Federal period. Constructed in 1792-93, the ballroom originally stood on the second floor of the Federal-style City Tavern and Hotel. It was one of the most refined public spaces in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1798 and 1799, George Washington celebrated his birthnight balls at the tavern … Though it was the site of refined entertainments, the whitewashed walls and chair-rail high dados reflected the practical side of the room’s prominence. Higher up, away from the scuffs and kicks of hands and feet, the room’s richly carved ornament is ordered, almost perfectly symmetrical, and reflects the principals and motifs of Georgian decoration despite its late date. The scrolled pediments over the doors and mantles, the crossetted moldings that embellish the doorways, windows, and mantles, the fretwork chair rail, and the dentil-molded cornice are similar to examples popularized by English pattern books of the 1740s and 1750s. (The Met Museum “Panel from the Ballroom at Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria, Virginia)
"He made narrow clerestory windows in the temple..." (New International Version, 1 Kings. 6.4)
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
clerestory, n.
Archit. The upper part of the nave, choir, and transepts of a cathedral or other large church, lying above the triforium … and containing a series of windows, clear of the roofs of the aisles, admitting light to the central parts of the building.
This quote concerns King Solomon’s famous construction of the Temple in the Old Testament of the Bible. The importance of windows in the design of religious buildings has been a constant throughout history. Clerestory windows were important for the temple, as the definition suggests, they provided light of a celestial angle into the main, important areas of the temple. The manipulation of lighting and imagery is often seen through the design and historical placement of stained glass windows throughout churches and religious buildings in the last one thousand years.
Oxford English Dictionary Definition
stained glass, n.
4. transparent coloured glass, formed into decorative mosaics, used in windows (esp. of churches). Also, less correctly, glass which has been decorated with vitrified pigments.
Stained glass windows are unique as a form of window, as they substantially differ in description with the standard definition of a window, as stated in the first paragraph. The basic essence of a window, as stated by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “An opening in the wall or roof of a building, for admitting light or air and allowing people to see out”. Whereas, the “Stained glass” webpage of Wikipedia explains: “In Western Europe [stained glass windows] constitute the major form of pictorial art to have survived. In this context, the purpose of a stained glass window is not to allow those within a building to see the world outside or even primarily to admit light but rather to control it. For this reason stained glass windows have been described as 'illuminated wall decorations'”. Stained glass windows may be considered wholly different from the standard window due to their alternative function as art rather than a lens of vision.
In the eighteenth century, stained glass slowed down as a medium of art. The Stained Glass Museum website comments on this in their section “A Brief History of Stained Glass”: “Although coloured glass continued to be made in the 17th and 18th centuries, the craft declined and skills were lost. Only in the 19th century was there a serious attempt to rediscover the techniques of the medieval glazier. Men like the antiquarian Charles Winston, and the architect A W N Pugin helped to re-establish the scholarly principles for a Gothic Revival of stained glass”.
Figure 12: This figure is a stained-glass window, created approximately in 1682, depicting the Royal Arms of Charles II of the House of Stuart. The separate stained glass panels come together to show the royal coat of arms of England, Scotland and Ireland together. The window was painted by Henry Gyles and later restored in 1825 by J. Barnett and is believed to have originally been from the West window in the Guildhall, York.
The presence of stained-glass windows as indicators of religious history pervade English eighteenth-century literature: “Above the vast and magnificent portal of this gate arose a window of the same order, whose pointed arches still exhibited fragments of stained glass, once the pride of monkish devotion” (Ann Radcliffe The Romance of the Forest). The Gothic influences of the religious ruins and fragmentary window allow Radcliffe to hearken back to a tradition of stained glass as a pious art, come into ruin in the eighteenth century.
Conclusion
Figure 13: This figure is a Google Ngram graph, picturing the rise of the use of the word 'window' throughout the eighteenth century.
This rise may be attributed to the rise in printed texts. The eighteenth-century conflicts in America concerning national self-sufficiency and prospective independence and other such debates ensured the wide circulation of printed texts such as pamphlets and essays. The more prominent presence of windows in literature may also be attributed to their national importance as class indicators due to the window and glass taxes. Their position as a platform of individual artistic expression also developed the standard window from a hole in a wall with the prime purpose of admitting light and air.
Thus, the eighteenth century saw windows as a base from which to showcase wealth and comment both politically and artistically on current issues. Windows were a method of escape and a link between the outside world and the private interior and are the vehicle through which the private is presented to the public. They are also major historical markers and indicate social feeling in relation to history, tradition and class performance. Windows transform ideas of history and function in so many ways in various texts and for a plethora of purposes. It is surprising how much knowledge of past events and attitudes may be gleaned from a simple glimpse through a window.
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
“1 Kings.” The Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. 257-282. Print.
The Bible as a fundamental religious text, with particular artistic influences in the West, contains a plethora of references to windows, both literal and metaphorical. Often windows are employed as imagery of the heavens, while actual construction is seen in 1 Kings when King Solomon builds his Temple and Palace. In these passages, windows are vital in creating the atmosphere of the building.
Austen, Jane, and William Dean Howells. Pride and Prejudice. N.p.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1918. Print.
Though written shortly after the close of the eighteenth century, the text comments on many of the issues and public concerns of the previous century. As a text on social commentary and the marriage economy, the novel uses seemingly irrelevant aspects of society, such as building windows, to illustrate the minutiae that govern and structure society.
Bentham, Jeremy. The Works of Jeremy Bentham. Ed. John Bowring. Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843. 11 vols. Vol. 4. Web.
oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1925#If0872-04_label_408. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
This text is extremely important in understanding the importance of detail in the construction of the perfect system of discipline and observation. Bentham's prison Panopticon necessitates windows, but in a way specific to the maintenance of the needs of the Panopticon. The text outlines the details of this and was highly influential for many later prison reformists such as Michel Foucault.
Burney, Fanny. Evelina, or, The History of a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World. 4th ed. Vol. 3. London: T. Lowndes, 1779. Web.
books.google.co.uk/books?id=HCUJAAAAQAAJ&dq. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.
This epistolary text is a prime example of the many eighteenth-century texts that use windows as a divide between the private and the domestic. Characters observe and are in turn observed by one another as the plot progresses. Evelina learns a significant amount about the society in which she lives and her place within it through her simple narrative observations.
History of Windows and Glass. Wychavon District Council, Oct 2007. Print.
This modest, local guide provides a concise yet detailed explanation of the history of windows in the District Council of Wychavon. Despite its seemingly limited geography, the guide is exemplary as a tool for understanding the evolution of windows all over the United Kingdom and the historical, cultural and royal influences on their development.
Howard, John. The State of prisons in England and Wales: with preliminary observations, and an account of some foreign prisons. N.p.: Warrington:
Printed by William Eyres, 1777. Web. Internet Archive, Getty Research Institute, www.archive.org/details/stateofprisonsin00howa. Accessed
11 Mar. 2017.
This text alongside Bentham’s explanation of the building of the Panopticon prison works very well in exploring the health concerns in a prison’s structural design. Howard’s review of the conditions of prisons such as Newgate Prison are useful in gaining a direct insight into the conditions eighteenth-century prisoners were subjected to and the way in which these conditions may be improved.
Lovelace, Richard. “To Althea, from Prison.” 1642. Web. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44657. Accessed 15 Mar. 2017.
This poem is one of Richard Lovelace’s most well-known works. It is a political poem, written while Lovelace was in Gatehouse Prison, calling for the repeal of the Clergy Act of 1640. The importance of the individual parts of the construction of prisons is present in this poem as Lovelace claims the physical building not the real prison.
Radcliffe, Ann Ward. The Romance of the Forest: Interspersed with some pieces of poetry. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. London: T. Hookham and J. Carpenter,
1792. Historical Texts. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.
This gothic text explores the contention between epicureanism and morality, which is particularly interesting when considering the relationship between artistic depictions of religious scenes in stained-glass art and religious significance of the holiness of their subjects. In stained-glass windows, there exists this relation between artistic enjoyment and the decay of religious importance, seen in the quote used from this text.
Richardson, Samuel. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. Ed. Thomas Keymer and Alice Wakely. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. Oxford World’s Classics.
This epistolary text, like Burney’s Evelina uses windows as a link between the public and domestic. However, it also is extremely unique in its depiction of the motif of desperate feminine escape through a window in order to preserve her honour. Not only do the many windows of the house exemplify the Master’s wealth, but they also allow Pamela to experience a self-governance in the face of subjugation.
Wakley, Thomas, ed. “The Government Bill – The National Association – The Duty on Glass.” The Lancet, vol. 45, no. 1121, 22 Feb. 1845, 214-216.
Web. books.google.co.uk/books?id=aP4BAAAAYAAJ&vq. Accessed 13 Mar. 2017.
This article from the medical journal The Lancet is a great source of noted medical concerns of the time regarding the window and glass taxes of the period, lasting from the end of the seventeenth century, through the eighteenth century and half way through the nineteenth century. This alongside the articles on the importance of windows in prisons illustrate very aptly, one of the primary functions of windows as health maintainers. This became clear in the eighteenth century essentially because of the taxes.
Secondary Sources
“A Brief History of Stained Glass.” The Stained Glass Museum, n.d., www.stainedglassmuseum.com/briefhistory.html. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
The Stained Glass Museum website is extremely useful in gaining an understanding of the history of stained-glass windows and their religious and artistic significance throughout the centuries.
“History of St. Peter’s Church.” Saint Peter’s Church, n.d., www.stpetersphila.org/about-st-peters/history/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia, is a rich source of eighteenth century architectural history. The church exhibits both original eighteenth-century Venetian blinds and stained glass windows from its original construction. The web page was particularly useful in explaining how buildings even so far as in the colonies in America are built under the influences of eighteenth-century design, royalty and fashions.
“Panel from the Ballrooom at Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria, Virginia.” The Met Museum, 1792-1793, www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-
art/17.116.1-5/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
The Met Museum website is very useful in portraying seemingly everyday artefacts that truly contribute a wealth of history to a single room. The web page’s exploration of the eighteenth-century fashions and their presence in the Venetian blinds and other aspects of the room brings an otherwise mundane picture of an historical ballroom to life.
“Argus Panoptes.” Greek Mythology, n.d., www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Creatures/Argus_Panoptes/argus_panoptes.html. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
This source is a brilliant basis from which to begin a study of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon proposals. Greek Mythology remains eternally relevant within the modern English lexicon, Argus Panoptes being a prime example of the way in which ideas morph throughout the ages, allowing us to understand the key components of Bentham’s proposals from a simple name.
“Stained glass.” Wikipedia, n.d., www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_glass. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
Having already researched the history of stained glass, this source was useful in understanding how it is often not considered an actual window due to its primary function as a form of art.
“The Window Tax.” History House. 2016. www.historyhouse.co.uk/articles/window_tax.html. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
This article on the eighteenth-century Window Tax outlines the health and societal issues of the tax in a succinct, yet thorough way. It also places the Window Tax within an historical frame, illustrating how windows impacted society economically and led to a deterioration of health for those incapable of affording the now-luxury windows.
Sawyer, Abigail. “Venetian Blinds: A History.” The Finishing Touch Blog, 24 Sep. 2012., blog.blinds.com/venetian-history/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
The history of Venetian blinds is surprisingly contrary to the name, making this source extremely useful in understanding the origins and evolution of the blinds, right from the East to the New World at the end of the eighteenth century. They were a symbol of the power and fashion of the business world and political elite. This blog post shows how the development of windows and their various accessories have always been intrinsically linked to class once they enter the Transatlantic market.
“Window Tax.” UK Parliament Website, n.d., www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/towncountry/towns/tyne-and-wear-case-
study/about-the-group/housing/window-tax/. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
This source is useful in pursuing an understanding of the historical window and glass taxes of the eighteenth century and how they were originally understood as very equal taxes that focused on individual wealth while avoiding being a form of direct income tax, as contextually, this was a very controversial topic.
Goncalves, Andre Vicente. “Windows of the World.” Andre Vicente Goncalves Photography. 3 Jun. 2015.
www.andrevicentegoncalves.com/blog/2015/06/03/windows-of-the-world/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
This photography series is extremely interesting in how Goncalves is able to capture the unique identity of every place he visits simply through his gathering of window photographs. The web page truly illustrated the importance of geography in the evolution of windows and how windows are essentially a form of art in how they are able to relate history and character of the town and its inhabitants. Perhaps a favourite source, Goncalves’ photographs are magnificent in their depiction of many eighteenth-century artistic and fashionable influences and how they are translated in different cultures throughout the world.
Tertiary Sources
“clerestory.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, 1889. Web. 12 March 2017.
“effluvium.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, 1891. Web. 14 March 2017.
“mullion, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2003. Web. 12 March 2017.
“‘sash-’ window, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web. 22 February 2017.
“stained glass.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, 1915. Web. 12 March 2017.
“transom, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, 1914. Web. 12 March 2017.
“Venetian blind.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, 1916. Web. 14 March 2017.
"window, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2016. Web. 21 February 2017.
“window, n.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Web. 21 February 2017.
Images
Figure 1: Ross, David. The oriel window over the nave. West Smithfield, London. Britain Express, www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=1586. Accessed 22 February 2017.
Figure 2: Orme, Jason. A classical era Georgian house. Home Building, www.homebuilding.co.uk/georgian-style/. Accessed 22 February 2017.
Figure 3: Burt, Gary. A House in Portland Street, Southampton, with bricked-up spaces in place of windows. 1 Jun. 2008. Photograph. Portland Street, Southampton. Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax#/media/File:Window_Tax.jpg. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Figure 4: Traynor, Kim. Blocked-up windows in Edinburgh. 24 Aug. 2011. Photograph. Brighton Street, Edinburgh. Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax#/media/File:Windows_in_Brighton_Street,_Edinburgh.jpg. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Figure 5: A Vision of the Repeal of the Window-Tax. 1851. Wellcome Library, London. Punch, vol. XVIII., p. 165.
Figure 6: Butler, Geremy and George Dance the Younger. Newgate Prison. N.d. Photograph. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London. Britannica, www.britannica.com/place/Newgate-Prison-historical-prison-London. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Figure 7: Pages 12-13 of Howard’s The State of Prisons in England and Wales: With preliminary observations, and an account of some foreign prisons. 1777. N.p. Internet Archive, www.archive.org/stream/stateofprisonsin00howa#page/12/mode/2up. Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
Figure 8: Reveley, Willey. Elevation, section and plan of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon penitentiary. 1791. Web. www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon#/media/File:Panopticon.jpg. Accessed 15 Mar. 2017.
Figure 9: Goncalves, Andre Vicente. London, UK. 3 June. 2015. Photograph. London. Andre Vicente Goncalves Photography, www.andrevicentegoncalves.com/blog/2015/06/03/windows-of-the-world/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
Figure 10: Ferris, J. L. Gerome. The Visit of Paul Jones to the Constitutional Convention. 1787. Web. blog.blinds.com/venetian-history/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Figure 11: Panel from the Ballrooom at Gadsby’s Tavern, Alexandria, Virginia. 1792-1793. Alexandria, Virginia. The Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.116.1-5/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2017.
Figure 12: Gyles, Henry. Royal Arms. 1682. Photograph. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Victoria and Albert Museum, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O7972/royal-arms-window-gyles-henry/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2017.
Figure 13: Google Ngram Viewer, Web. books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=window&year_start=1690&year_end=1810&corpus=16&smoothing=2&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cwindow%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cwindow%3B%2Cc1.
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