Establishing decorating firms in London and New York, the enterprising Glaswegian artist Daniel Cottier, co-founded the Australian firm, Lyon, Cottier & Co., in 1873 with a fellow stained glass artist John Lamb Lyon. With Cottier remaining in Britain, Lyon moved from Melbourne to Sydney with his family where there was little competition in stained glass work and a new rail network were connecting the inland towns to Sydney and encouraging the building of public, residential and church architecture. 

Opening the showroom in Sydney displaying domestic and church stained glass, Lyon showed modern and rich aesthetic styling not then seen before in the work of an Australian firm. This lecture reveals how Lyon, Cottier & Co. brought currents of the Aesthetic movement to Australia through its illustrated exploration of a number of the firm's stained-glass commissions in New South Wales between 1874 and the 1890s. 

Biographical note:

Dr Andrew Montana was a senior lecturer in art and design for almost twenty years. The author of books, chapters and articles, he engages with the intersection of art, architecture, design and the decorative arts in his ongoing research. 

Most recently, Dr Montana has contributed two chapters on Australia’s stained glass in Daniel Cottier: Designer, Decorator, Dealer, edited by Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Max Donnelly with Andrew Montana and Suzanne Veldink, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 2021.