transparency, glass and heraldic painter and signwriter, advertised his skills from 262 Crown Street, Sydney, two doors from the South Head Road, in October 1858, emphasising that his 'ARTISTIC PAINTING ON GLASS’ was especially suitable for church windows. Apart from the large figurative east window by Clutterbuck of Stratford, England, Palmer was reported in 1861 to have been responsible for painting all the windows in Holy Trinity Church of England, Argyle Street, Sydney (the Garrison Church at the Rocks) 'in imitation of Powell’s stained glass’. By then his shop was in Park Street. He may have painted other diamond quarries in imitation of Powell’s (presumably more expensive) imported glass for other Early Victorian Gothic Revival churches in Sydney, including those in St Philip’s, Church Hill (which has both Powell originals and local imitations), and St Mark’s, Darling Point. Hitherto attributed to the churches’ architect Edmund Blacket, these locally made gold (silver nitrate) and black formal floral quarries were possibly initiated by Blacket – who also worked on the Garrison Church – and carried out by Palmer. Blacket had worked as a stained-glass painter in England, had access to a kiln for firing and, most significantly, owned a copy of the English antiquarian Charles Winston’s influential book on stained glass from which the designs were almost certainly taken. No transparencies or heraldic paintings by Palmer have been identified.

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Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011