About this collection...

Before I retired, I owned a commercial Glass Studio. While working there in 2003, two gentlemen came in holding three brown paper scrolls. They proceeded to unroll three magnificent, detailed window cartoons. After a couple hours of extremely enjoyable conversation, they gifted me with the drawings. When I flipped out with joy, they said to me, "We had no idea you would flip out so much, do you want the rest?" I was gobsmacked!

It seems that the three cartoons belonged to a close friend who was a widow. Her husband loved stained glass and happened upon a 100-year-old glass art studio somewhere in the mid-west closing that week. He purchased the last two display panels and, as an afterthought, purchased many large trash bags of rolled up drawings. At the time I got those first three cartoons, that was all I knew.

The husband’s purchase of the collection of stained glass cartoons was in 1970. For over thirty years, they were stored in the trash bags in attics, basements, and garages. In 2003, the widow was downsizing and she was looking to find a new home for them.

At that time, I had just purchased the commercial property for my glass studio and was completely tapped out. However, we were a commercial studio and offered to restore her badly degraded windows as a trade.

She was very generous, not only with the cartoons, but she also gave us her old kitchen table and chairs for the new studio.

That was the beginning of the Jacoby preservation project. The cartoons were in horrific condition. Very dry, dirty, and tearing from being tightly bound by twine. It took three days just to unroll them. But, there was one magnificent design after another.

Evelyn, my friend, coworker, and part owner of the cartoon collection, met with me every other Monday for two years as we cleaned, hydrated, repaired, and researched this collection. We enjoyed every minute.

Initially, we contacted paper restoration experts and even the master of the floors of the National Cathedral (yes, that's a position). He gave us the best advice. He told us that we had a national treasure, and a ten-year research project on our hands, but also to enjoy them.

We have used the drawings for artist studies and for inspiration for our commissioned work. We are all better artists for having them. Whenever we travel we look for churches with the windows made from one of our cartoons. We have found these windows several times over the years. It is always thrilling.

Whether you are interested in owning unique sacred art or just want to browse we hope you enjoy our website as much as we enjoyed making it.

Barbra Quinn and Evelyn Stanford