Francis Eginton (1737 - 1805),[1] was an English glass painter.[2] He painted windows for cathedrals, churches, chapels and stately homes etc. around the country, leaving 50 large works altogether; his work was also exported abroad. His masterpiece is "The conversion of St. Paul", for the east window of St Paul's Church, Birmingham. He also developed a method for reproducing paintings mechanically.
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Eginton was the grandson of the rector of Eckington, Worcestershire, and was taught the trade of an enameller at Bilston. As a young man he was employed by Matthew Boulton in the Soho Manufactory. In 1764 Eginton was employed as a decorator of japanned wares, but did much work in modelling. During the next few years Boulton brought together a number of able artists at Soho, including John Flaxman and James Wyatt; and Eginton rapidly became a skilful worker in almost every department of decorative art.[3]
Eginton was a partner with Boulton in the production of "mechanical paintings" or "polgraphs". The idea for these was in all probability taken by Boulton from a process modified by Robert Laurie (1755?-1836) from Jean-Baptiste Le Prince's 'aquatint' engravings. Eginton perfected the method and applied it to the production of coloured copies of paintings. More plates than one were required for each picture, and after leaving the printing-press Eginton finished them by hand. They were copies from Loutherbourgh, Angelica Kauffmann, and other artists, and varied in price from £1. 10s. to £21. The largest were 40 inches by 50. They were sometimes mistaken for original paintings; in fact, some of them were pronounced by two artists to be "oil-paintings of much merit", and their real character was not discovered until a cleaner removed the varnish. These old "polygraphs" were in fact nearly identical to varnished coloured lithographs (oleographs) which were then prevalent, the main difference being that the latter were printed from stones.[3]
F. P. Smith, then of the Patent Museum in South Kensington, maintained, in a paper read before the Photographic Society of London in 1863, that some of these polygraphs preserved at the museum were actually photographs of an early date! This claim, however was untenable. Pioneering photographer, Thomas Wedgwood, had indeed made experiments upon copying pictures by the action of light upon silver nitrate, but the results then obtained would be altogether incapable of producing pictures of their size and character. The matter was finally settled by a series of pamphlets written by M. P. W. Boulton (grandson of Boulton) in 1863-5, in which he gave an account of the whole matter. And, Vincent Brooks, an eminent lithographer, produced an exact imitation of the "ground" of one of the examples exhibited at South Kensington by taking an impression from an aquatint engraved plate on paper used for transfer lithography.[3][4]
The "picture branch" of Boulton's business was discontinued as unprofitable, the loss on this and the japanning trade being over £500 for 1780. The partnership between Eginton and Boulton was dissolved. Lord Dartmouth proposed to grant Eginton a government pension of £20 a year for his work on the aforementioned copying process, but Boulton raised objections to this proposal, and the offer was withdrawn. For the next year or two Eginton appears to have continued to work at Soho, and to have begun in 1781 to stain and paint upon glass. In 1784 he left Soho and set up in business for himself at Prospect Hill House (demolished 1871), which stood just opposite Soho.[5][3]
Before Eginton the art of glass-painting had fallen into complete disuse. He revived it and turned out a long series of works in stained glass from his Birmingham factory. His first work of consequence was the arms of the knights of the Garter for two Gothic windows in the stalls in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and among other works were:[3]
Eginton painted a fine window (20 ft. by 10 ft.) representing Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, in the banqueting room of Arundel Castle. He also did much work at Fonthill Abbey, including thirty-two figures of kings, knights, etc, and many windows, for which Beckford paid him £12,000. Eginton sent much of his painted glass abroad, and some of his finest work ended up in Amsterdam in Holland. In 1791 he completed what was then considered his masterpiece, the "Conversion of St. Paul", for the east window of St Paul's Church, Birmingham, for which he received the "very inadequate sum of four hundred guineas".[3]
Eginton's works were, in fact, transparencies on glass. He was obliged to render opaque a large portion of his glass, and thus covered up the characteristic beauty of the old windows. Eginton's showroom was seen by all distinguished visitors of Birmingham. Lord Nelson, accompanied by Sir William and Lady Hamilton called there on 29 August 1802.[3]
Eginton died on the 26th March 1805, and was buried in Old Handsworth churchyard.[3]
His daughter married Henry Wyatt, the painter; his son, William Raphael Eginton, succeeded to his father's business, and in 1816 received the appointment of glass-stainer to Princess Charlotte. His brother, John Eginton, was celebrated as an engraver in stipple. His nephew, Francis Eginton, was also a notable engraver.[3]