During May there was something of a special moon. Or something strange happened to the sun and there on the wall of Douglas’ new bathroom was a shimmering apparition, as close as you could get to magic.

It was in fact a reflection (or was that projection) of the acid-glazed window, which portrayed autumn in the form of a neo-classical young woman, complete with sheaf of wheat, scythe and sandaled feet.

Like a lot of these hefty neoclassical models there seems something slightly transgender about them. But she’s a beauty, no doubt about that.
She came from the centre of a pair of beautiful glass doors which came from the local auction mart. There once would have been a matching goddess in the other central pane – perhaps winter or summer?

But by the time we got the doors she had vanished.

Douglas made the decision to lift the existing goddess out and make her into a solo picture in his bathroom. It was a good decision, as the light is diffused – and every afternoon she positively glows.

The double doors weren’t cheap – but much cheaper than at a demolition yard, where anything decently odd gets priced astronomically. Douglas actually did the delicate work of removing the glass pane by pane. The doors reused in the Morning Room featured in an earlier posting – where in most of the old coloured glass that once surrounded this apparition and her twin still reside.

It was a pain-staking process of  chipping out crumbling putty and removing old nails – but almost all of it came away intact. Ironically it was one of the smallest pieces that broke – small enough to be reset in the doors in its divided state. The large autumn pane was left till last and although slightly nerve-racking it was eventually lifted out in one piece.

These panes leave another lovely hue on the walls as the sun sets in the west – it makes you wonder why clear colourless glass seems to reign supreme in contemporary houses.

PW