"Descending Lady in Garden"

Approximately 3 weeks ago: (mid-January)...I'd been trolling salvage sites, Craig's list, Ebay in search of architectural details suitable for 3724's beauty, to fill in the gaps where some of her attire has been sold or pawned over the years. I noticed a gorgeous stained window on a local salvage shop's website,  and I couldn't  stop thinking about it.  It had a name: "Descending Lady in Garden". It's Victorian, as is 3724.  The center is a beautiful Pre-Raphaelite painting of a woman gracefully descending a garden staircase. The center is surrounded by intricate, ornate, glass in shimmering shades of green with large fiery torches bookending the piece. The window is about 4x6 ...I measured  our window opening in the staircase landing and it's SO close in size!!! (The length fits; the width is off only by a few inches.)They're asking $3200.. I've looked online and found  that 3000 is very reasonable for a window of that size and quality,  I do know how much work is involved in creating a window like that ...probably thousands of hours.  It would take my friend, John Campbell, the stained glass artist about 6 months to make that window. John lives in Wisconsin way back in the countryside now, but used to have a shop on Grand Avenue in St. Paul. He's been creating stained glass for over 30 years now, and is still passionate about it. The Victorian era is his baby, and it's difficult to tell whether his work is antique or newer (he uses antique glass or the best quality hand made slab glass). If we were serious about this window, I would have him look at it to make sure it's OK.

Followup: I stopped by the shop a couple weeks ago, and it was closed. I called the owners...they were out of town, but they described the damage--the lady is cracked! (and poorly repaired). I dilly-dallyed...$3000. is a lot of money right now, with all the other items needing doing, and bills to pay.

Today: The window is still haunting me..I thought about going over to see it many times.  Heather and I couldn't stop writing to each other about it. We called it the house's muse.  Heather was actually dreaming about the window, and one of  the nights she dreamt about it, she had a very cool experience that I'll let her blog about if she wishes. There's more to the window than meets the eye. I know that's sounds dramatic, but I do feel it.  So.....I just had to see it. I called the salvage place's number to find out whether it's still there and discovered that not only do they still have it but they're they having a 50% off sale! Holy Moly Rocky!  I rushed over to the shop, and loved the real-deal even more than the dream...to me the damage isn't significant and .it implies that we all have flaws, but can shine through them. The Japanese call it Wabi-Sabi.  Heather is going to make time to look at it on Saturday. My intrepid nature wants her to go over there TOMORROW, but I'm trying  holding back my impulsive side...

Cheryl

Heather's dream:

I often have really vivid dreams around the full moon. I have since I was little.  We were on the roof terrace of our house (forget that we don't have one) on Park, I looked at the image of the window again yesterday because I realized later that the terrace in my dream was the one in the window!  it was dusk and we were having a summer party.   We could see that up and down the street many other houses were having parties as well.  Most of the houses had completely glass fronts so that you could see inside all of the rooms like a dollhouse with cheery lights and people all throughout.  You and I, wine in hand, were looking around and suddenly realized that there were little spinning currents and eddys of air all up and down the street and that we both could see them.  We asked around and it was just us that could see them.  We walked down the couple of steps off the terrace and onto a disc that just happened to be there.  We could hop from one eddy to another through the air like we were surfing.  We ended at Tom and Gary's  and sat and finished our drink on the porch.  It makes me smile every time I think about it. 

I would love to see the window in real life.  It has been a bit of a muse the last week.  This was the first time I could really envision what the house was originally.  A really special place.

 Today Ryan and I went to see her.  WOW.  She does have some damage but as Cheryl said, "we all have flaws, but can shine through them."


All I can see is her beauty.

We're looking into the options we have for repair or mitigating the visible effect of the damage.

I'm holding my breath until we find a way to make this a sound purchase.