Selling a Tiffany window without losing the view

Every year a few pastors call us with the same problem. The parish has a Tiffany window, sometimes two, and a roof, a boiler or a school that needs money the parish does not have. The window would cover it. But the window is also the thing the congregation looks at every Sunday, and nobody wants to be the one who sold it.

There is a way through. We buy the original window and replace it with a replica made from a museum-quality photograph of that same window, printed on Lexan or tempered glass and fitted in the original opening. Seen from the pews, most people cannot tell the difference. The light comes through the same colours in the same places. The parish keeps the view and gains the funds.

**How it works.** We photograph the window in place, then remove it panel by panel, crate it and take it to our shop. The replica is made from those photographs at full size and installed in the same frame, with the same protective glazing the original had. The original is cleaned, stabilised where the lead has fatigued, and finds a new home through our buyers: a museum, a collector, another church. The parish is involved at every step and signs off on the replica before it goes in.

**Three examples.** At Plainfield, New Jersey we removed two 1906 Tiffany windows, Angels of Praise and Shadows of Darkness, and installed replicas in their place. At Kenosha, Wisconsin the same approach preserved the look of Christ and Charity (1904) and Cornelius and Angel (1908). At Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Christ and a Traveler (1898) left for a new home while its image stayed in the church.

**What it costs the parish.** Nothing up front. The purchase price of the original covers the replica, the removal and the installation, and the balance goes to the parish.

If you are weighing this decision, we are happy to look at photographs and give you an honest opinion of what the window is and what it might bring. There is no obligation, and no pressure to sell. Some of the best conversations we have end with the window staying exactly where it is.