Heaton, Butler & Bayne

Grove Art: English firm of stained-glass manufacturers. In 1855 Clement Heaton (b Bradford on Avon, 1824; d 1882), a glass painter, went into partnership with James Butler (b Warwick, 1830; d 1913), a lead glazier, to make stained glass. They initially shared premises in London with the newly established firm of Clayton & Bell, providing the technical expertise for the latter’s designing skills. The firm was known as Heaton, Butler & Bayne from 1862, when Robert Turnill Bayne (b nr Warwick, 1837; d 1915), a Pre-Raphaelite artist, became partner and chief designer. Bayne’s striking and linear designs were carried out in an exceptionally wide range of coloured glass, developed by Heaton as a result of his researches into medieval techniques. Typical windows produced at this time are at St Nicholas (south chancel, 1863), East Dereham, Norfolk, and Peterborough Cathedral (north transept, 1864). By the late 1860s the firm was seen as more advanced in design than Clayton & Bell, whose dependence on the Gothic Revival style made them less fashionable. The distinctive, classicizing style of Henry Holiday, employed as a freelance designer between 1864 and 1878, can be seen in work executed in 1876 for St Luke’s, Camden, London. Heaton’s son, clement j. Heaton, worked for the firm and became a partner in 1882. By the last years of the century the vibrancy of the earlier windows had been replaced by muted tones and the detailed drawing and painting of the period. The firm closed in 1953.