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Why did medieval glaziers keep and reuse finished cartoons?
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stained glass
The stained-glass rose window in the north transept of Chartres Cathedral, France.
By the 14th century, medieval glaziers maintained a stock of finished cartoonsâdetailed designs executed on parchment or paperâprimarily to adapt them for different glazing schemes.1
Rather than creating every design from scratch, workshops functioned as highly organized enterprises that reused these patterns to produce various classes of work efficiently, depending on the budget and requirements of their patrons. The practice of keeping these cartoons was so established that they were considered valuable professional assets, often passed down through generations, as evidenced by the will of a York glazier who bequeathed his collection of cartoons to his son in 1450.1