Pattern book for white stained-glass windows.

Black ink on paper, 4to format: 52 ff. (toned, some soiling and staining, some ff. loosening or loose, some ff. torn out, edges frayed).

Contemp. vellum (soiled, corners bumped & def.), flat spine (head & tail def.), remains of ties.

Unique and very interesting volume containing 79 designs for decorative stained-glass windows with original, recurring geometric patterns, for the making of the so-called "vitrerie blanche". These patterns were used to fill up a whole window, or a part of the window next to the main - mostly coloured - stained-glass design. The designs are neatly hand-drawn on square or rectangular sheets, and pasted on the ff. of the vol. Most patterns have pencil measures around and are drawn on special lined paper for technical drawings. This pattern book could have been used by a skilled (itinerant?) craftsman, a stained-glass artist from the Belgian region of South Limbourg. The origin of the book or the name of the artist is not certain, but most probably the family Ulrix of Tongeren, master stained-glass artists. There are double ms. entries by Severinus Ulrix (1633-1680) and Arnoldus Ulrix (Tongeren 1660-1730), a.o. "Desen patroon boeck heeft getrocken Severinus Ulrix". Further on some ms. notes (dated 1719, 1720) on a delivery of glass, a bill for a pharmacist and for the Augustines, a window repair for a female monastic community, orders for windows, ... On lower endpaper an ownership entry dated 1691: "Dit patroon boock hoordt toe Lambertus vanden Loest". A mention of one "Lambertus Van Veulen": "1719 den 1 october, memorie voor Lambertus van Veulen ghewerckt aen sijn glasenmacker ambacht voor knecht [...]". Veulen (now a part of Heers) is a small parish close to Tongeren. Very interesting volume definitely warranting further research.
Joined: 34 geometric patterns (from a 20th-c. publication) pasted on 16 sm. cards (14 x 9 cm) showing examples of 17th-c. "vitreries blanches" and where they were found in the region of Northern France: churches in i.a. Esquelbecq, Pitgam, Arnèke, Saint-Pierre-Brouck, Dunkirk, Hondschoote, Cappelle-brouck, and also in Mons and Paris. These patterns are similar to those found in our pattern book.