April 2020 – Richard Cann

A man standing in a garden, holding a small baby, beside a display of several rows of wooden framed leaded stained glass windows on the lawn

In 2010 something amazing came into my life. Something so beautiful and precious.

The above photo shows the first set of leaded light window sashes I ever acquired. One day I was at the local dump when I saw some fool throwing them away. I rescued as many as I could out of sentimentality not thinking of monetary value. It snowballed from there. As a hobby for next five years I bought and sold sets locally. Something else came into my life that year. Ten years on…

A man standing in a garden, with a ten year old boy on his back, beside a display of several rows of wooden framed leaded stained glass windows on the lawn — April 2020

I now sell full-time as an internet order based business having discarded a well paid job with sick/holiday pay and a pension but happy as Larry shipping this stuff all over the world! I continue to add to my collection…

I had dreams of employing staff and renting expensive London showroom space. Now is the first time I feel lucky not to be in that situation.

Working from home has never been that bad. Of course there is someone else very special who helps make home/work/life bearable but she is behind the camera!

2020 is poignant for another reason. If you regard “antiques” to mean something 100 years old or older then more of my stock, particularly the framed leaded toplights as shown below, can now be classed as such. This style was made between the 1920s – 1960s.

Most are still for sale. From top left R1016c, R1063a, B1063a, B1063b, R1018a, R1018b, R1018c, R944a, R1003d sunray from a set of five. Incidentally none are from the dump. I paid for these!

As always I have salvaged doors and hundreds of salvaged windows listed for sale on my website. In the past five years I started offering a bespoke service whereby something can be made new to your exact size. Explore! https://leadedstainedglass.com/

Having always traded as an internet order business there is little difference to how I am operating in the current circumstances. To demonstrate this thought I would show everything I have packaged and despatched this week. Unless stated otherwise all packages were sent to the USA, using FedEx.

R1058b to Cookeville, TN

Stained glass window on a piece of polystyrene

Man cutting a marked big piece of polystyrene

Taped polystyrene packaged with a piece of stained glass in the middle

S1012e classic Victorian door panels to Madison, IN

S1076 antique painted bird to Waco, TX, using UPS

R1003d two packs consisting of a set of seven to Tain, Scotland using Menzies Highlands and Islands:

R970b to Denver, CO (incidentally I have another of these in stock, click here for details)

A long stained glass window, orange and red and yellow spikes, possibly part if a sunburst, with blue lines

R944b to Puyallup, WA (I also have another of these in stock, click here for details)

R1036a to Peterhead, Scotland using Parcelforce:

There are only so many hours in the day for packaging. For deliveries within England sometimes I arrange for Alex, an independent courier, to collect and deliver directly to my customers. Here are two orders collected today. I left them in the back of my car so Alex could collect without there being any need for contact. This is the same policy for anyone who wants to arrange their own collection.

That’s it, but it’s only Thursday! The small difference to my normal operation is I cannot have people over for viewings at the moment. That service was always limited due to the lack of space I have, given that I operate from a three bedroom house!