Mary Lowndes (1857–1929)
Influential stained glass artist and co-founder, with Alfred Drury (1868–1940), of the Glass House in London. The daughter of the vicar of St Mary's Church, Sturminster Newton, Dorset, Mary Lowndes trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She was also a pupil of Henry Holiday and designed windows that were made by James Powell & Sons from 1887–92. Further windows were made by Britten & Gilson before she established the studio and workshop Lowndes & Drury with Alfred Drury in 1897. Their 'Glass House' in Fulham was established in 1906 and became a hub for artists making stained glass according to Arts & Crafts methods.
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St Melangell artist: Mary Lowndes 1905 Church of St Tydecho, Cemmaes, Powys south wall of the nave | |
Virgin and Child with St Cecilia and St Margaret artist: Mary Lowndes 1917 Church of St Margaret, Mountain Ash, Rhondda Cynon Taff north wall of the north transept | |
St John the Evangelist and the Virgin Mary artist: Mary Lowndes about 1920 Church of the Holy Trinity, Aberaeron, Ceredigion south wall of the sanctuary | |
St Cecilia and St Luke artist: Mary Lowndes 1925 Church of the Holy Trinity, Aberaeron, Ceredigion south wall of the nave |
Further reading
Peter Cormack, Arts and Crafts Stained Glass (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), pp. 85–7, 95–6, 252–3 and further references.
Nancy Armstrong, 'Lowndes, Mary (1856–1929)' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004).
Ann O'Donoghue, 'Mary Lowndes - A Brief Overview of Her Life and Work' The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. xxiv (2000), 38–52.
Joyce Little, Stained Glass Marks and Monograms (London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002), p. 81.
Sarah Sexton, 'Subversive suffrage stitches' The Quilter, vol. 154 (2018), 26–9.
Alan Brooks and Peter Cormack, 'The Artists of the Glass House' The Journal of Stained Glass, vol. xli (2017), 34.
Barrie Armstrong and Wendy Armstrong, The Arts and Crafts Movement in the North West of England: A Handbook (Wetherby: Oblong, 2005), p. 243.
Peter Cormack, Women Stained Glass Artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement (London: London Borough of Waltham Forest, 1985), pp. 5–6.
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