Stained Glass Ltd - About Us

When I began repairing residential stained glass in Oak Park in 1980, I became intrigued with the thousands of stained glass windows in the Chicago area that contain elements of double-sided reflective gold glass. This glass was used everywhere, in the famous Frank Lloyd Wright houses – and his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, to the 80,000 or so Historic Chicago Bungalows and thousands of other middle-class homes in the greater Chicago area. No one seemed to know how it was made or by whom. I think I have found the answers to some of these questions.

Years of research have shown that the glass in these windows was gilded by a chemical deposition process known as Angel Gilding. Gold chloride is dissolved in water, mixed with other chemicals and poured on the glass – basically in the same way that a silver mirror is made with silver nitrate. Based on our research, we make and sell the chemical solutions needed to produce gold mirrors as well as silver, copper and Galena mirrors. We supply sheets of thin gold mirror glass to stained glass craftsmen. Please see Mirrored Glass.

Because my customers ask important and useful questions about caring for their stained glass windows, I have put together a Stained Glass Owner's Manual. If you have questions that are not answered here, please contact us.

Sarah King
Stained Glass Ltd
and AngelGilding.com