D. Marion Grant, stained glass artist and designer, papers

Cartoons for stained glass commissions (1939 - 1967); publications (1942 - 1997); certificates (1948 - 1950); unidentified artwork (ca.1959); notes on stained glass commissions (1961 - 1972); invoices (1967); photographs (undated); material relating to other stained glass designers (undated); other papers (undated).

Dorothy Marion Grant (1912 - 1988) was born in Bromley and educated at Kinnaird Park School. She studied art at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1931 to 1935, including heraldry and stained glass among her subjects. At the end of her course she became apprenticed to the stained glass designer Francis Spear and also undertook work for Martin Travers , designing drapery for figures. Grant worked from a studio let by the London stained glass manufacturers Lowndes and Drury , which provided a central kiln and a supply of glass.

During the Second World War Grant worked for the Air Ministry designing camouflage for aircraft hangars. In 1940 her design for a window at All Saints Church, Bradbourne, Dorset was exhibited at the Royal Academy . In 1951 she designed the East Window of the Lady Chapel at Exeter Cathedral . As post-war church restorations led to new commissions, Grant was able to obtain her own studio off Portman Square: she continued to use the Lowndes and Drury kiln.

D. Marion Grant was a fellow of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and served on the Society's Council for several years. She retired in 1972 and continued to live in London until her death in 1988.

This archive collection is available for consultation in the V&A Study Rooms by appointment only. Full details of access arrangements may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/.

Access to some of the material may be restricted. These are noted in the catalogue where relevant.

Gift of the estate of John Grant, 2000.

Information on copying and commercial reproduction may be found here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/archives/.

• AAD/2008/1 - Lowndes & Drury, stained glass workers: records
• Exeter Cathedral Archives: Design (1951)