John Baker (stained glass artist) explained

John Baker
Birth Date:	11 March 1916
Birth Place:	Birmingham, U.K.
Death Date:	20 December 2007 (aged 91)
Death Place:	Hastings, U.K.
Nationality:	British
Alma Mater:	Central School of Art and Design
Spouse:	Hilary Stebbing

John 'Jack' Baker (1916-2007) was a British stained-glass artist, teacher, conservator and author.

Biography

He was a student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in the late 1930s, where he was a contemporary of Monica Walker and the artist, illustrator and children's author Hilary Stebbing, whom he married in 1946.^[1] He worked under James Hogan at the Whitefriars Glass before joining Samuel Caldwell junior at Canterbury Cathedral in 1948 to help reinstate the medieval glass removed for safekeeping during the Second World War.

Teaching

Baker taught stained glass at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1951,^[2] where in 1953-54 he ran the stained glass department with Tom Fair,^[3] and his pupils included Robert Sowers and Margaret Traherne.^[4] From 1963 he taught at Kingston College of Art.^[5]

His work was exhibited at The Architectural Association in January 1956.^[6]

Stained glass, mosaic & sculpture

• 1957, Church of the Holy Name, Bow Common Lane, Mile End: 11 windows
• 1958, St Michaels Convent, Finchley: large mosaic in entrance hall
• 1958, Little St Peter, Cricklewood: two windows and a brick sculpture^[7] (The church no longer exists.)
• 1959, St Anne's, East Wittering: eighteen windows^{[8] [9]}
• 1959, Broomfield Chapel, Abbots Langley: two large abstract windows
• 1959, Austin Reed, Regent Street, London: six glass and aluminium panels
• 1960, Our Lady, St Mary of Walsingham, London Colney: 10 large concrete and glass windows
• 1960, St George, Britwell: Tree of Jesse^{[10] [11]} (The 1960 church was replaced in the early 2000s, but some of the side panels of the Jesse window are incorporated in the new church.)^[12]
• 1964, Holy Cross Church, Gleadless Valley: 10 large concrete and glass windows, including full height windows of the Virgin Mary and St John
• 1965, Chapel, St Michaels Convent, Finchley: 22 concrete and glass windows -- the school website includes photographs^[13]
• 1965–1973, Holy Trinity Cathedral, Auckland, New Zealand: windows for the Marsden Chapel^[14] and large window in the transept
• Canterbury Cathedral: St Stephen's Chapel, in memory of Lang Fisk-Moore, Canterbury^[15]
• St Mary, Ide Hill, Sevenoaks: Nativity, east window^[16]
• The King's School, Canterbury, library
• St Mary's, Climping: a stylised Madonna and child^[17]
• Burgher's Chapel, Sheffield Cathedral

Dalle de verre

From 1960 to 1965, Baker created a number of dalle de verre windows in churches and chapels, setting slab glass in concrete or resin: Our Lady, St Mary of Walsingham, London Colney (1960); St George, Britwell (1964); Holy Cross Church, Gleadless Valley (1964); St Michaels Convent, Finchley (1965).

Publications

• 'Secular stained glass', The Architectural Association Journal, December 1955, p.120
• English Stained Glass with an introduction by Herbert Read and photographs by Alfred Lammer, Thames & Hudson, London, 1960
• English Stained Glass of the Medieval Period (revised edition of the above), Thames & Hudson, London, 1978

Notes and References

1. February 2008 . News: John 'Jack' Baker. 15. Vidimus: The Only Online Magazine Devoted to Medieval Stained Glass. 6 November 2022.
2. Web site: J. (probably John) Baker. Mapping Sculpture - Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951 . . 6 November 2022.
3. News: Harrod . Tanya . 18 July 2006 . Margaret Traherne . The Independent . 9 November 2022.
4. News: Brown . Sarah . 10 August 2006 . Margaret Traherne . The Guardian . 9 November 2022.
5. Web site: DIPAD RE-APPLICATION AUGUST 1963 . Archive Kingston School of Art . 9 November 2022.
6. Carden . Andrew . February 1956 . Exhibition of stained glass . The Architectural Association Journal . 187 .
7. '8-sided church cost £28,000'. The Daily Telegraph. 13 March 1958. 'Two of the six altar windows are of stained glass in purple, designed by Mr John Baker.'
8. Web site: Our faith in stained glass . St Anne’s Church East Wittering . 15 May 2022 . 10 November 2022.
9. Web site: East Wittering and Earnley churches / July 27, 2021 . Ward . Sasha . The small lower windows throughout the church are filled with a complete set of stained glass windows, contemporary with the church, by John Baker. . 29 February 2024.
10. Web site: James Powell & Sons orders (England) . The Art Society . 31 August 2023.
11. Web site: Stained Glass of Buckinghamshire Churches - Windows by John Baker - Artist. 9 November 2022.
12. https://www.davidjlilly.com/about Lilly, David J
13. Web site: School Building. St Michael's Catholic Grammar School. 2 September 2023.
14. Web site: Marsden Chapel Windows . Public Art Heritage Aotearoa New Zealand . 3 September 2023.
15. Web site: Friends' photographs - Cosmo Gordon Lang, Archbishop - 4 photographs of stained glass window designed by John Baker in St Stephen's Chapel, in memory of Lang Fisk-Moore . Canterbury Cathedral Online Archives . . 9 November 2022.
16. Web site: St Mary's Church, Ide Hill, Kent . The original east window was destroyed in the Second World War and was replaced in 1946 by a colourful modern design of the Nativity by John Baker. . John E. Vigar's Kent Churches . 10 November 2022.
17. Web site: Climping – St Mary . Sussex Parish Churches . 9 November 2022.