05/31/2026
“WOW!!” treasure of the week!
We recently acquired this amazing c.1885 mosaic, arabesque style, stained glass window by the Henry Belcher Studio out of New York.
Mixed into the mosaic design in glittering assortment of stained glass “jewels”. Some of the jewels are made of what is called uranium glass. When hit with a black light they fluoresce with a fantastic green glow! (See last image/clip)
Belcher pioneered a process of stained glass mosaics that, instead of lead, was held together with an amalgam akin to the material used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth.
Unfortunately, the amount of mercury etc. required to fill a cavity in a tooth and what was needed to bind the glass in a sizable window was VERY different!
Belcher’s success and innovation came crashing down when many of his employees started becoming very sick, and some even dying, due the extensive exposure to large amounts of mercury and the process of mixing it with other metals.
Finding surviving windows by the Belcher Studio fairly rare. Exposure to the windows is no longer dangerous as long as the amalgam binding material isn’t sanded and inhaled.
