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J&R Lamb Studios, America's oldest continuously-run decorative arts company, is famous as a stained glass maker, preceding the studios of both John LaFarge and Louis C. Tiffany.
Contents
History
The J&R Lamb Studios was established in 1857 by brothers Joseph (1833-1898) and Richard Lamb (1836-1909) in Greenwich Village in New York City. They had previously left Lewisham, England to come to the United States with their family since their father, a landscape architect, was engaged to work on Niblo's Garden, an exhibition hall and open-air theater.
Originally, the company also did mosaic, murals, monuments, and other work for churches, temples, residences, government and academic institutions.
The firm was chosen by the United States government as one of four studios to represent American achievements in stained glass at the Paris International Exposition of 1900. They won two prizes for their window entitled Religion Enthroned designed by Frederick Stymetz Lamb (1862-1928), the third of Joseph's sons. Frederick's brother, Charles Rollinson Lamb (1860-1942), a renowned City Beautiful theorist and architect, shaped the studio's aesthetic and intellectual character and business. Frederick became its head of design and supervised the firm's team of skilled craftsman. In the early 1920s Frederick and his wife Nellie moved to Berkeley, California where he supervised local civic projects and frequently exhibited his landscapes in oil to great acclaim at the art colonies in Berkeley and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Ella Condie Lamb, the wife of Charles Rollinson Lamb, was a well known artist and stained glass designer, also winning a medal in the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 for her oil work, "The Advent Angel".
Studio owner and family member, Karl Barre Lamb (1890-1969), was president of the Stained Glass Association of America 1954-1955 and an elected fellow. Lamb descendants ran the studios until his death. Under Karl B. Lamb's leadership, the studios relocated to Tenafly, New Jersey after The Great Depression.
In 1970, Lamb Studios artist Donald Samick bought the firm.
With the death of the stained glass artist Katharine Lamb Tait (1895-1981), the daughter of Charles Rollinson Lamb, the Lamb family was no longer involved with the studio.
The Library of Congress is the repository for the Lamb Studios Archive.
Studio location history
Cf. Lamb Studios Archive: Background, Library of Congress