Family of Joseph (Josef) Edward NUTTGENS and Mary Kathleen CLARKE

British Stained Glass Artist born in Germany of a German father and an English mother. They moved to London when he was four years old. He discovered his talent of drawing soon after leaving school. Attending evening classes led to a job as a draughtsman with a freelance glass designer and it turned out to be the beginning of a distinguished career. He worked in Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire, where many followers of William Morris had their workplaces. At that time the enthusiasm for church building and restoration had led to the rise of a small number of large firms who made quantities of mass produced stained glass windows. Mass produced production methods meant that the work of the designers and the craftsmen was carried out separately and neither had much feeling for the work of the others. He was introduced to a group of talented glass artists who, influenced by the thinking of William Morris, set up workshops in Fulham where designers, painters, cutters and glaziers worked closely together to create authentic works of art. After teaching stained glass work at the Royal College of Art, he moved with his family to Piggotts Hill in the Chilterns and opened his own studio. Piggotts Hill was the home of a community of Roman Catholic artists and craftsmen which included his neighbour and friend Eric Gill, the stone carver, wood engraver, essayist and typographer. Their mutual support, shared Catholicism and philosophy of community, family life and practical craftsmanship were important influenced all of them. He worked for over sixty years filling many British and a few overseas churches with beautiful windows, including the East Window in St. Ethlereda's Church in London, windows in St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong, Bedington Parish Church, England and Addis Ababa Cathedral, Ethiopia. He married twice, first to Kathleen Clarke and then to Daphne Reid, a fellow artist.¹⁰