Tiffany Studios

The First Presbyterian Church of Topeka, Kansas, commissioned directly from Tiffany Studios, 1910

“Memorial Windows for First Presbyterian Church,” Topeka Daily Capital, December 10, 1910, p. 5

“Tiffany Windows in Kansas,” New York Observer, vol. 89, no. 2, January 12, 1911, p. 60

“Short Stories of Topeka Happenings,” Topeka Daily Capital, September 4, 1911, p. 5

“Thomas Windows Ready,” Topeka State Journal, September 30, 1911, p. 8

“To Dedicate the Thomas Memorial,” Topeka Daily Capital, September 30, 1911, p. 13

“Church Windows Decorated,” Wichita Eagle, October 3, 1911, p. 3

“Memorial Windows,” New York Observer, vol. 89, no. 44, November 2, 1911, pp. 569-570

Tiffany Studios, Thomas Memorial Windows Erected to the Memory of Jonathan Thomas by His Wife Josephine B. Thomas, New York, 1911, n.p.

First Presbyterian Church of Topeka, The Tiffany Windows: First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, Kansas, 2002, pp. 20-22

Louis Comfort Tiffany was a life-long explorer of artistic mediums and foreign cultures, a characteristic that led to numerous overseas trips. He first visited Europe with his sister Annie in 1865 at the youthful age of 17 and spent a considerable period sightseeing in France. Tiffany returned to that country numerous times during his life and a highlight of one of his earliest trips was a visit to Chartres Cathedral. The stained glass windows he saw and admired so much were the direct inspiration for First Presbyterian Church of Topeka’s magnificent Jonathan Thomas Memorial “Medallion” window.

Located 50 miles from Paris, Chartres Cathedral was constructed between 1194 and 1220 and is generally considered an architectural masterpiece and the epitome of French Gothic art. It contains over 150 stained glass windows, most of which were completed by 1250. Many of the panels were lancets enclosing numerous circular medallions, each depicting a different Biblical scene. These windows had a profound and lasting influence on Louis Tiffany. He gloried in the rich primary colors of the medieval “pot glass” and his desire to reproduce it led directly to the creation and development of his famous “Favrile” glass. Tiffany wrote in 1893: "…perfection was reached in the medallion windows of the thirteenth century. The glass employed at this time was pot-metal, a kind in which the color permeates the entire mass. it was made in unequal thicknesses and was filled with bubbles and other imperfections which added greatly to its brilliancy by affording many points against which the sun’s rays were broken. Its unequal thickness gave the quality of light and shade without thinness or opacity." He went on to explain that the use of chemical stains led to the decline of the craft and eventually its “death” by the 18^th century.

Tiffany, coincidentally, had established in 1892 a glasshouse in Corona, Queens where the first batches of Favrile glass were created. It was there that he began his mission to restore and revitalize the art of stained glass making. His company’s exhibition at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago proved to be a watershed moment and brought Tiffany and his glasshouse international acclaim. Included in the display was a large medallion-style window, now in the permanent collection of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art (Winter Park, Florida), obviously inspired by the windows Tiffany saw first-hand in Chartres.

One of the last windows created by Tiffany Studios was completed in 1931. Designed in the medallion format by Tiffany himself and entitled “The Tree of Life,” it was intended by the artist to summarize his artistic philosophy in his favorite medium. It is remarkable that, in the 38 years between the two aforementioned windows and the thousands of other windows produced by Tiffany’s various firms during that period, less than 60 recorded medallion examples were made. And of the approximately 45 still in existence, the Thomas Memorial Window is perhaps the most remarkable.

The window for the First Presbyterian Church was first mentioned in December 1910. It was publicly announced that Mrs. Josephine Thomas had donated “a large sum,” later reported to be about $14,000, and a contract had been signed with Tiffany Studios to manufacture nine leaded glass windows to memorialize her late husband, Jonathan Thomas (1841-1910). A veteran of the Civil War, Thomas, accompanied by his young wife, moved to Topeka, opened 18 lumberyards throughout the state, and became one of the wealthiest and most influential citizens in the city. Although he never renounced his Quaker faith, the Thomases were among the most generous donors to the First Presbyterian Church and his wife felt the church was the obvious place to honor and memorialize her husband.

Tiffany Studios completed the windows ten months later under the direct supervision of Louis Tiffany. They were delivered and installed in First Presbyterian by September 4, 1911 and were officially dedicated on October 1st. Seven of the windows are figural, based on Biblical passages and likely designed by Frederick Wilson. The design of the present glorious Medallion window, however, can be credited to Louis Comfort Tiffany himself, who was responsible for most, if not all, of the company’s windows influenced by the 13^th century examples. It is likely that Tiffany was reacting to, and countering, criticism of his landscape windows by the highly influential architectural critic, Ralph Adams Cram (1863-1942). Cram argued that Tiffany’s scenic stained glass windows were “based on entirely new principles wholly at variance with those held during the great 500 years of the Middle Ages and with the whole ethos of Christian art.”

First Presbyterian’s window bears a striking resemblance to the one also designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and installed in the First Church of Christ (Fairfield, Connecticut) in 1908. There are, however, two significant differences. The window in Connecticut depicts small circular scenes in the life of Jesus, which was the standard motif employed by Tiffany Studios in their other ecclesiastical medallion windows. The Thomas Memorial window, however, makes more abstract references to Christ in the upper arch by using the Greek letters Alpha and Omega (signifying "the beginning and the end"), as well as IHS, Chi and Rho. A considerably more significant difference is that the window presented here features a far more complex design comprised of glass with a considerably greater brilliancy and richer gem-like tones. The Thomas Memorial’s radiant blue glass, in colors ranging from sapphire to indigo to periwinkle, dominate and are beautifully juxtaposed with glass that covers the entire spectrum including all manners of reds, greens and yellows.

Interspersed throughout the entire window are exquisite hand-chiseled Favrile glass “jewels.” Tiffany Studios occasionally enhanced their windows with such bits and the ones in the Thomas Memorial are perhaps the boldest and most spectacular ever produced by the glasshouse. Resembling rubies, emeralds, topazes, amethysts and sapphires, some are as long as three inches. All were hand-wrought and faceted, an exceptionally time-consuming task, which greatly enhances and amplifies their sparkling brilliance.

A 1907 critic, reacting to another medallion window produced by Tiffany Studios, exclaimed: “The revival of this type, which is considered to be one of the most beautiful, marks a new epoch in American window making.” The First Presbyterian Church of Topeka’s Thomas “Medallion” Memorial window gloriously exhibits the design genius of Louis Comfort Tiffany and his unrivaled “Favrile” glass, and magnificently supports the truth of that claim.

– PAUL DOROS