A leafy street in the upmarket suburb of Alkapuri in Baroda, is lined with late Art Deco (1935 - 1950) houses in various stages of decay.
These palatial homes, set in shady gardens with palm trees, oleander and bougainvillea, are the remnants of a bygone age of pastel colours and decorative detail.
Once an exclusive and quiet neighbourhood, land has become so valuable that many of these home owners are selling up and moving out to a new suburb on the outskirts of town, where they can recapture the exclusivity which they once enjoyed in Alkapuri.
The old homes are being pulled down and replaced by modern, featureless blocks of flats, where the average rental is over 80 000 rupees per month.
Some houses are no longer as they were in their prime and decorative features like 'lead-light' windows, are buckled and bowed, but despite this, they have an air of distinguished grace.
Leaded windows have a long history extending from medieval times, when stain glass windows decorated structures from Gothic Cathedrals to small Parish Churches, in varying degrees of complexity. But increasingly the more simple 'lead-light' windows were used in domestic architecture as a decorative feature at the front of the house, to introduce an element of colour into the facade. In the 20th century, artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Tiffany, popularised stain glass as an art form and windows, door panels and stair wells, were often glazed in this way. Known as 'came glasswork' the small pieces of coloured glass are held in place by lead cames, whose joints are soldered together to give the panel its rigidity and then supported by a metal armature. Lead was popular because it was cheap, but also because it was soft and malleable. Unfortunately, this very quality, causes the window to sag, over time and without restoration, the glass eventually falls out.
Leaded windows have a long history extending from medieval times, when stain glass windows decorated structures from Gothic Cathedrals to small Parish Churches, in varying degrees of complexity. But increasingly the more simple 'lead-light' windows were used in domestic architecture as a decorative feature at the front of the house, to introduce an element of colour into the facade. In the 20th century, artists like Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Tiffany, popularised stain glass as an art form and windows, door panels and stair wells, were often glazed in this way. Known as 'came glasswork' the small pieces of coloured glass are held in place by lead cames, whose joints are soldered together to give the panel its rigidity and then supported by a metal armature. Lead was popular because it was cheap, but also because it was soft and malleable. Unfortunately, this very quality, causes the window to sag, over time and without restoration, the glass eventually falls out.
In the past, every town would have had a thriving industry in lead-lighting, but now the craft has become increasingly rare - something an artist might do, as a specialised commission, for a price !
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