In the 19th century, Pugin and Morris brought a new impetus to the making of stained glass. Nonetheless, until well into the 20th century, the design and the creation of stained glass remained largely separate. Few individuals wishing to commission a memorial window looked beyond the designs of saints by Burne-Jones and Dearle’s foliage backgrounds. The window itself would be manufactured by a specialist firm.

The continuation of such practices aroused the frustration of a younger generation of Arts and Crafts men, such as Christopher Whall (1849–1924) in England, Douglas Strachan (1875–1950) in Scotland, Harry Clarke (1889–1931) in Ireland and Charles J Connick (1875–1945) in America, who were determined to make as well as design. Peter Cormack’s authoritative Arts & Crafts Stained Glass (2015), now regrettably out of print, covers the work of the first two in considerable detail, and makes it clear why Connick so admired Whall, not only for his glass but also for his 1905 book Stained Glass Work, published as part of Pitman’s Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks. In this, Whall argued that the artist-designer should be actively involved at every stage of the glass-making process, from initial sketch through to installation of the completed window.

Connick was born with few advantages – ‘on the “wrong” side of the Erie & Pittsburgh Rail Road’s tracks,’ as Cormack puts it – in Springboro, Pennsylvania, the son of a small-time businessman and ardent prohibitionist bankrupted in the depression of 1893. As a teenager, Connick helped augment the family