User:Eccekevin/Carmel du Mans Glassworks

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The Carmel du Mans glasswork company (French: Fabrique de vitraux du carmel du Mans) was a glass company acttive between 1853 and 1903 based in Le Mans, France. Initially, it was owned and operated by the Carmelite nuns, and then sold first to Edouard Rathouis and then to Eugène Hucher.

In the 1870s the Carmel du Mans Glassworks had been suffering financial troubles, also in part due to the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. To keep the business solvent and the workers employed, the Carmelites replaced the windows of their own chapel in 1871, featuring Carmelite saints (these drawings would also be re-used in the windows sold to Notre Dame). In 1873, the Carmelite nuns sold the Glasswork business to Edouard Rathouis, glasswork importer and nephew of Mother Eléonore, mother prioress of the nuns. This sale occurred only a few months after the order for the Notre Dame windows had begun, hence only the first windows painted in 1874 were made by the Carmelites themselves.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame) features 116 stained glass windows consist of more than 1,200 individual panels and were designed and made by the Carmel du Mans Glassworks. The 44 large windows depict 114 life-size scenes and 106 smaller scenes.

To pay for the windows, due to the financial troubles Notre Dame was in given the Long Depression and the 1879 fire of the main building, sponsors were solicited. Major contributors to buy the windows were Alexis Coquillard and Sister M. Germaine of the Passion, CSC, who donated her inheritance of seventeen thousand francs for the chapel and sanctuary windows. Additionally, Notre Dame received a ten percent commission on all windows ordered due to Sorin's influence, who publicized the company in America. The Carmel du Mans Glassworks realized the potential publicity of a large order in America, and hence did a high-quality job and also signed all their windows with the company name, which they previously had not done. In 1880, Edouard Rathouis sold the Carmel du Mans Glasswork to Eugène Hucher. This is reflected in the signage of the windows, which read first “Carmel du Mans, E. Rathouis” (in the earlier works in the nave) and finally “Fabrique du Carmel du Mans, Hucher et Fils, Successors” (in the last windows in the Lady Chapel). The contract for the windows was negotiated by Sorin and signed by Auguste Lemonnier, CSC, who was president at the time.