A decoration which shall lose nothing by age or time: the domestic stained glass of the R.S. Groves and Steil Art Stained Glass Company

Abstract

As the first in-depth scholarship of late-nineteenth-century domestic stained-glass windows, this thesis examines the domestic windows of the R. S. Groves and Steil Arts Stained Glass Company that worked in Philadelphia from 1879 until 1902. Using the company's 1888 catalog, extant company windows, period interior decoration literature, and catalogs from competing companies, this study will investigate how the social atmosphere of Groves and Steil's upper-middle-class clientele influenced the company's window designs. During a time when stained-glass windows were a status symbol of wealth and style, Groves and Steil's survival depended on the company's ability to produce quality windows in the latest style choices while staying competitively priced. Therefore, Groves and Steil's windows, advertising, and clients reflect the company's balance between art and commerce, teaching modern scholars many things about American design and entrepreneurship during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.