CAMM, Florence & Walter at the T.W. CAMM STUDIO. STAINED GLASS WINDOW DESIGNERS.
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Two original designs for a large Memorial stained glass window in St. Andrew’s Church, Droitwich.
Together with: A design for a Memorial window in Hampton Lovett Church.
1) The two very detailed designs for St. Andrew’s Church are the same, both numbered “Design no. 14531”. The first is entitled “Suggested Memorial Window, South Chapel, East End, Droitwich” and at the bottom has all the details of the scale and is dated, and inscribed in ink “Thomas William Camm, The Studio, Smethwick”, in addition at the bottom of the design “Inv et delt Florence & Walter Camm”. The second is clearly a copy of the design after it had been agreed entitled “South Chapel Window. St. Andrew’s Church, Droitwich”, again with the design number and Studio name but unsigned and undated”. 41.4 x 23 cm. The designs are coloured in watercolour and ink cut out in sections and pasted onto thick handmade art card and inscribed in ink by the designers.
2) The design for the Hampton-Lovatt Church is entitled “Suggested Alternative Design for a Memorial Window in the Westwood Chapel, Hampton-Lovett Church, Nr Droitwich”, with “Design no. 14008A”, suggesting it is earlier than 1943. 26.5 x 24.5 cm., drawn in pencil and watercolour and pasted onto thick handmade art card with two sections pasted on top of two of the sections of window, presumably as alternative designs. The window was made as a memorial to the The 2nd Baron Doverdale, Oswald Partington hence the inclusion of St. Oswald and a cricket bat and wicket in the top left hand corner as he was Chairman of
Worcestershire County Cricket Club.
Florence Camm (1874 – 1960) was a British stained-glass artist, painter and metalworker associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. She trained at the Birmingham Art School and, with her brothers, Walter and Robert, took over the management of the family stained-glass business after her father Thomas W. Camm died in 1912 - he had set up the Studio in Smethwick in 1867, Florence Camm was the principal designer of the firm until her death in 1960.
Florence Camm had learned the technique of stained glass making from prominent stained glass artist, Henry Payne as well as from her father. She won numerous prizes for her drawings, stained glass designs and metalwork, exhibiting her work in national and international exhibitions. In 1911, Camm created what is considered her most successful work, three stained glass windows for the English House at the Turin International Exhibition. Illustrating scenes from Dante's La Vita Nuova, Camm's windows won the exhibition's Grand Prix in three classes and the Diploma of Honour for the exhibition. The windows are now in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama.
In the West Midlands, the Camm family business flourished and acquired global status with commissions coming in from America, Spain, New Zealand and India. The firm’s windows are widely remembered because of the work of their creative designer, Florence Camm.