Custom Bent Glass for antique crown glass door bubble out

Antique china cabinets in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s use to have very intricate designed  wood mullions  in the doors.  They  would install glass that bubbled out between the wood.  This is called crown glass or bubble glass.  Pennsylvania House Furniture also used this technique in there breakfronts. We made replacement glass for Pennsylvania House Furniture for many years .  We custom make replacement glass for any antique  cabinet doors.  The curve in the  glass is not simple radius .

Antique crown glass replacement

I make a custom mold for each piece no two bent crown glass  doors are the same (selling custom molds also to companies such as https://www.bentragerhomes.com.au/).

Curved replacement glass

In the very old pieces of furniture the glass was putty in place .  They did not use wood stops to hold in the glass.   They would use Portland cement in the putty .  This makes the putty very hard and you have to grind it off to install the replacement curved glass.

Antique Bubble Glass Door/ Crown Glass

The real work come matching the antique glazing that holds the glass in the wood door.  First you tint the putty and install the glass.  Then I use pitch to darken it more and give it the aged dirty look.

first step in glazing door glass

New glazing made to look old