John Ward Knowles

John Ward Knowles (1838–1931) was a prominent British York-based stained-glass manufacturer, and commentator on local art and music.

After training in art, Knowles dabbled in photography. On his marriage to Jane Annakind in 1874 he moved to Stonegate in York, the old ‘Sign of the Bible’, which then became a Knowles family home for the next one hundred and twenty years. He renovated the building which became a hub of artistic endeavour with workshops producing not only stained glass but all kinds of ecclesiastical decoration including beautiful embroideries and tapestry work produced by the Knowles daughters.

The building still retains much of Knowles’ work, installed when he lived here including a collection of priceless late Victorian and Edwardian stained glass.

The family continued the craft traditions into the 20th century but also moved with the times and John Ward Knowles’ son John Alder Knowles spent some time studying glass manufacturing methods in the USA before the First World War. Enthused by the work of Tiffany, he attempted an English version of the famous lamps, but charming though his prototypes were, they lacked the delicacy of the originals and failed to catch on.

John Ward Knowles continued to live and work here until his death at the age of 93 and his sons continued the business up to 1953. The building remained in the Knowles family until 1999 when it was purchased by Jonathan Cainer to become the world’s first psychic museum.

British and Irish stained glass

British and Irish stained glass (1811–1918)

History

Influences

Artistic movements	Aesthetic Movement Art Nouveau Arts and Crafts Movement Biblia pauperum Cambridge Camden Society Classicism Early Renaissance Exoticism Gothic Revival Oxford Movement Romanticism

Organizations	The Glass House Hogarth Club Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

People

Architectural	John Loughborough Pearson Augustus Pugin George Gilbert Scott Alexander Thomson

Artists	Edward Liddall Armitage Hugh Arnold Margaret Chilton Charles Edmund Clutterbuck Trena Cox Louis Davis works Rachel de Montmorency Alfred Drury Mabel Esplin Moira Forsyth Jane Gray Reginald Hallward works Herbert Hendrie James Humphries Hogan Joan Howson works Marjorie Kemp Charles Eamer Kempe Mary Lowndes William Morris Karl Parsons works Henry Payne works Lilian Josephine Pocock Arnold Wathen Robinson works Arild Rosenkrantz Francis Skeat works Caroline Townshend works Christopher Webb Christopher Whall works Veronica Whall works Thomas Willement William Wilson Paul Woodroffe works Edward Woore works British stained-glass artists Irish stained-glass artists

Critics	John Ruskin

Manufacturers	An Túr Gloine Burlison and Grylls Harry Clarke Clayton and Bell Daniel Cottier John Hardman & Co. Heaton, Butler and Bayne Hincks and Burnell Lavers, Barraud and Westlake Morris & Co. James Powell and Sons Shrigley and Hunt William Wailes William Warrington

Examples

Images

Terminology