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Anthony McCarty

Master Craftsman

Stained and architectural glass.
London, since 1980.

London

(01)Biography

I found my calling at sixteen.

I was drawn to glass from the start: its structure, and the precision it demands. Cutting it teaches you early that the material must be respected.

It led me to an apprenticeship with a stained glass studio in Shoreditch, East London, where I learned every stage of the craft.

Over four decades, the work has taken me from a stained glass dome in Riyadh to the clock faces of Big Ben. I bring traditional technique to contemporary design, and approach each commission as a problem to be solved with precision. The work still holds me, and I am grateful for it.

At the bench, 2003
In the workshop

On cutting glass

“Respect the material, or it will draw blood.”
Anthony McCarty, Master Craftsman

(02)Selected work

From Riyadh to Westminster.

01

Big Ben

Elizabeth Tower, Westminster / 2010

I was commissioned to restore the four clock faces of Big Ben, replacing damaged and missing white opal glass minute markers.

Dial work is usually carried out from inside the tower. This could only be done from outside, so for two weeks I worked on ropes across the faces themselves, around the hands. It was the first time I had abseiled.

The work was later reported in the Evening Standard.

02

Natural History Museum

South Kensington, London / 1994

I was commissioned to make two central stained glass windows for the Natural History Museum.

The brief was preservation. Each window had to match the originals around it in layout, colour and texture, so that the new glass could not be told from the old.

03

Hotel Café Royal

The lightwell, Regent Street, London / 2012

For the lightwell of Hotel Café Royal I made more than a thousand copper and glass screens, rising through four storeys of one of London’s great historic buildings.

It was a privilege to work at that scale, in a building with that history.

04

Stained glass dome

Private residence, Riyadh / 1983

A stained glass dome for a private residence in Riyadh.

Stained glass is where I began, and this dome remains among the works closest to me.

Royal Agricultural Hall, 1997

(03)Commissions

Glass for palaces, museums, landmarks and private residences.

  1. 01Stained glass dome, Riyadh1983
  2. 02Natural History Museum1994
  3. 03Royal Agricultural Hall1997
  4. 04Big Ben2010
  5. 05Hotel Café Royal2012
  6. 06Buckingham Palace
  7. 07Windsor Castle
  8. 08Harrods
  9. 09Burberrys
  10. 10The All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon
  11. 11English Heritage

(04)Exhibited

The Art of SeeingArtworks East, Leyton2025

(05)The studio

My work now lives at Copa + Glas.

Copa + Glas is the East London studio where I am Master Craftsman. We make mirrors and lighting in solid copper and hand-cut glass: a studio collection, made to order; editions, each limited to ten; and bespoke works by commission.

The Prairie Mirror, a tall copper grid of silvered and art glass, against patterned wallpaper

Edition of ten

The Prairie Mirror

  • 31.5 × 91cm
  • Solid copper, silvered and art glass
  • Numbered, signed and certificated

View at Copa + Glas

Collectors on the Copa + Glas private list hear of new editions before they are announced.

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(06)Contact

For press and other enquiries, please write to

am@anthonymccarty.co.uk
Anthony McCarty, Master Craftsman