HERITAGE Piper windows back in Chapel
The Tree and the River of Life , two stained glass windows which were damaged in the earthquakes, have been repaired and reinstalled in the Chapel. Designed by renowned British watercolourist John Piper, the windows were already buckled before the quakes but sustained some additional damage during the 2010–11 events. First unveiled in Chapel in 1969, they commemorate Ernest Courtenay Crosse and were donated by his widow Mrs Joyce Cross and family, and Old Boys. They are the only two known windows designed by John Piper and executed by Patrick Reyntiens outside Britain – the other is in the Washington National Cathedral in the USA. Crosse was 33 when he became Chaplain and Headmaster of Christ’s College, roles he fulfilled for the next nine years, before returning to England. Victor Stewart of Stewart Stained Glass says the work on the windows was quite difficult to execute because the glass is multi- layered, and extremely thick. “The glass had to come from Germany and matching it to the original was exacting work, plus we had to make the lead to fit.” After 100 years of withstanding the heat of the New Zealand sun,
College Issue 34 2018
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