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Gray, Andrew Rigby

Andrew Gray(18 76 - 1962) was a stained glass designer born in Edinburgh. He studied at the Royal College of Art in London under Henry Tonks and subsequently worked as a designer for the stained glass manufacturers William Meikle & Co. of Glasgow from c.1900 and later and in 1907 succeeded John T. Stewart and Charles E. Stewart as chief designer of the Meikle studio . 


Stained-glass windows and panels designed by William Meikle and Rigby Gray are illustrated in the Studio Yearbook of Decorative Art 1907, 1911 and 1912. Gray designed numerous stained glass windows including Lamlash Parish Church, Isle of Arran. Glasgow Museums hold examples. There are also World War I Memorial windows at the site of the former North British Locomotive Co Ltd located at Flemington St, Springburn, Glasgow. They are under the auspices of the Imperial War Museum. Gray remained with Meikle & Co until the Depression years of the mid-1930's when the studio was forced to close. It is unknown what happened to him following this date. 

Lamlash Parish Church- The detail shown,  ‘Gloria’, is one of a series of miniatures forming part of a larger single light window. The others are a cymbalist, a triangle players and an astonished cherub. Each is an accomplished study. Gloria’s strange closed face; her dark hair & golden halo circlet; her realistic cello & strings fingering; all against a light foreground palette and dark green foliage background containing dark blue and pink patches.

William Meikle and Sons was one of the leading Glasgow firms of stained glass makers. It was founded in 1836, but only started working in glass in 1886, just two years before the management pasted to the founder’s son, William T Meikle. Equally important was the arrival in 1892 of John Tytler Stewart (1858-1930) as principal designer.


Source: Scotland’s Stained Glass Making the Colours Sing by Michael Donnelly (Historic Scotland, 1977)


Bibliography:


Glasgow Stained Glass: A Preliminary Study by Michael Donnelly. Published in conjunction with the exhibition Glasgow Stained Glass at the People's Palace Museum, Glasgow, 1981. ISBN: 090275212X.


https://www.artbiogs.co.uk/1/artists/graham-andrew-rigby


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