Saint Stephen Catholic Church

601 Eucalyptus Drive
San Francisco

Ancient legends tell of jeweled temples, and of thrones encrusted with gems.  Those precious stones may well have been glass, created by chance in nature.  Yet the brilliance of light refracted through those irregular pieces of glass dazzled the eyes of the ancients, just as a jewel might capture our eyes today.

In 1915, the wonder of the world was the Tower of Jewels at the Panama – Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.  The Tower was covered with thousands of faceted glass jewels illuminated by the newly invented electric light.

Is it any wonder that stained glass designers “discovered” a jeweled glass medium just 35 years after that world’s fair in San Francisco?

Innovative French artists added a new dimension to stained glass by using thick slabs of glass for modern creations.  The glass, called dalle-de-verre, is one inch thick.  The sheets of glass used for traditional stained glass are little more than 1/8th inch thick.  When chipped on the edges, the thick glass produces conchoidal fractures which refract the light to produce a brilliant gem-like depth, much like those legendary stones of the ancients.

Dalle-de-verre windows in America were introduced in the mid 1950’s by French designers.  By 1959, Carl Huneke, Century Stained Glass Studio, San Francisco, began experimenting with dalle-de-verre creations.  He had worked in baroque, German style and Gothic revival stained glass windows for more than forty years, and was eager to try this new medium.  By 1962, he began installing faceted dalle-de-verre windows at Saint Stephen Church on Eucalyptus Drive in the Lakeside Park district of San Francisco.  The theme of the windows included the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious Mysteries, and saints selected by the pastor, and the many donors of individual windows.  The effect of entering Saint Stephen Church is like stepping into a jewel box.

Mr. Huneke’s family was parishioners of Saint Stephen since the parish was founded in 1950.  A new church was built in 1962.  Architect Fred Houweling designed the Spanish mission style church with dalle-de-verre windows in mind.  Father Joseph A. Donworth, Pastor, admired Mr. Huneke’s traditional stained glass windows, but liked the concept of the modern dalle-de-verre samples, which Mr. Huneke showed him.

Mr. Huneke’s first experiments with dalle-de verre glass were disappointing.  The glass pieces were crude because the glass was difficult to cut.  Mr. Huneke purchased a tile saw with diamond blades.  The pieces of glass could then be accurately cut to small sizes for intricate artistic designs.  The concrete matrix, which held the thick pieces of glass together, presented several problems.  The glass pieces had to be spaced far apart to provide enough strength in the concrete window.  In addition, the concrete had to be poured the full thickness of the glass.  That limited the refraction of light from the edges of the glass, which produced the jewel-like effect.  The panels were also too thick to be installed in standard window frames, and had to be made in smaller sizes because of weight and handling limitations.  At one time, and in one voice, artists, architects and aficionados of glass cried out for a thinner, lighter matrix material.  The chemical industry was ready with (the then new) epoxy resin.  Epoxy matrix material was strong and light.  The space between pieces of glass could be as little as 1/8th inch, which allowed great freedom in design.  It could be poured only half the thickness of the glass to allow radiant refraction of light from the edges.  Those edges could be chipped deeply to produce highlights in the cheeks and foreheads of the faces, and shading in the folds of garments.  Panels could be produced in larger sizes, and the thinner depths fit in standard window frames.  These were rather profound technological changes in a craft, which had changed little in a thousand years, but dalle-de-verre was now compatible with almost any architectural style of building, and was just in time for the windows at Saint Stephen’s.

Working with a new medium, Mr. Huneke could not rely on his skill with traditional stained glass windows to satisfy his own artistic vision.  First, he made miniature pencil sketches of each window in proportions, which could be expanded to the full size of the window.  Several copies of each allowed him to experiment with combinations until the right proportions of light and dark, color and contrast, and pleasing composition of the scene had been achieved.  Full size copies of the miniature sketches for the Nativity window at Saint Stephen’s are shown.

Next a full size cartoon, the plan for the window was drawn.  If the window was very large, the cartoon was cut to size of one or two panels within a window.  Each piece of glass was shown in the cartoon, which served as the cutting guide for the glass.  Sometimes a touch of watercolor was brushed onto the cartoon to indicate the color selection for an individual piece of glass.  Next, the cartoon was laid out on a worktable.  A transparent sheet was taped over the cartoon then a 1-inch frame of wood exactly the size and shape of the finished panel was nailed down, holding the cartoon and transparent sheet in place.  A dalle of the proper color was selected, and a piece of glass was cut to shape by diamond saw or glasscutter.  Then facets were created by striking the edge or top face of the glass with a small hammer.  Safety glasses and pocket less smocks were necessary to avoid cuts, but gloves were not used because the feel of glass and the hammer were important to get the right faceting effect without destroying the piece of glass.  After all the pieces within a panel were cut, they were arranged precisely on the cartoon.  One by one, each piece was lifted out, liquid latex was applied to the bottom and the piece was glued onto the transparent sheet in the place indicated by the cartoon beneath.

The next step was preparing the epoxy mixture.  Five-gallon cans of epoxy had room for the addition of hardener and catalyst.  The components were mixed thoroughly with a paint-stirring propeller on an electric drill.  Batches of the epoxy mixture were poured by hand, a gallon at a time, into the frame surrounding the pieces of glass, until the spaces were filled 1/2 inch deep.  A steady hand was required since any epoxy on the surface or exposed edge of the glass would cut the refracted light, or cause the glue to loosen during removal of the drips from the piece of glass.  The surface of the epoxy matrix was sprinkled lightly with white Del Monte sand to achieve a matte finish compatible with the interior finishes of the church.  Then the completed panel cured undisturbed until the epoxy developed strength and stability.

When several Saint Stephen’s windows had been completed, Mr. Huneke evaluated the results. He searched further for techniques to perfect the most difficult part of any window – the faces.  He felt that his artistry was limited by the straight cuts of the diamond saw.  He suddenly realized that by using the flat face of the saw blade, along with the edge, he could produce curved concave cuts in small pieces of glass.  His first success with that technique is shown in the mesmerizing eyes of Saint John Vianney, in a small window next to the pews on the right in Saint Stephen’s.  Mr. Huneke’s mastery of the modern medium, faceted dalle-de-verre was now complete.

Each of the 36 windows at Saint Stephen’s is compelling.  From the moment you enter the church, your eyes are immediately drawn to these radiantly artistic creations.  On the way out, take time to look at the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary window located in the choir.  Even though each element of the window is bold, the faces and garments draw the composition together gracefully.  Father Donworth’s favorite window was Saint Patrick, donated by his family.  It is located in the southeast stairwell to the choir.

Mr. Huneke went on to create faceted dalle-de-verre windows in eleven other churches or chapels in the Bay Area.  Those include the Steven Orradre Memorial Chapel and the Jensen Chapel in Archbishop Mc Gucken Hall at Saint Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, and Saint Leander, Saint Felicitas, and Holy Spirit churches in the East Bay.

One of Mr. Huneke’s early experimental faceted dalle-de-verre panels, “Virgin and Child” was exhibited at the Gallery at the American Bible Society on Broadway in New York City from late 2002 through spring of 2003.  The exhibition was entitled “Reflections in Glass, 20th Century Stained Glass in American Art and Architecture”.  Curator Virginia Chieffo Raguin chose “Virgin and Child” to represent faceted dalle-de-verre glass form the mid 1900’s.  The exhibition included panels by Tiffany, Lamb, Goodhue, Connick, Frank Lloyd Wright, and other leading stained glass designers of the past century.

Other dalle-de-verre glass in the Bay area includes Cathedral of Saint Mary in San Francisco. Four windows, designed by Georgy Kepes, Professor of Visual Arts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, represent the four elements of the ancient world.  Windows designed by Gabriel Loire are located at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos.  Mr. Loire was one of the originators of faceted dalle-de-verre at his studio in Chartres, France.  The Los Altos windows are the last designed by Mr. Loire before his death in 1996.

Saint Stephen Church is located at 601 Eucalyptus Drive, in San Francisco.

Carl Huneke’s studio, Century Stained Glass Studio, was located at 157 Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

The author, Terry Blaine, is a businessman in Menlo Park.  He occasionally assisted his father-in-law, Carl Huneke at Century Stained Glass Studio, and in installations of windows.  Over the past 12 years, as time permitted, he researched and photographed Mr. Huneke’s stained glass windows.