Regret is a strong word and I don't use it lightly

I probably am right in saying that I truly regret not buying a stained glass window, Let me explain

There used to be a museum in Massachusetts called "The Higgins Armory". They had an amazing collection of medieval weapons and armor. I had visited it twice. (You can see pictures and videos I took right here). Anyway, they went out of business due to financial problems.

A lot of their collection went to the Worcester Museum of Art. And some of their collection went up for auction at Sotheby's in London where it garnered over two million dollars in sales.

---

So, about the stained glass window

It was a kneeling and praying knight

I was on a mailing list with the museum and one day I got an email from Sotheby's announcing the auction. They asked if I would like a full color catalog sent to me. It would be of the items for auction.

I said absolutely yes and I received the catalog. Well, looking through it I found a small stained glass window of a kneeling and praying knight. It was a simple window but it really struck me. And they estimated it would auction for the price of around six hundred dollars.

Wouldn't it be cool if I pursued it? I could book a flight to London, stay a few days, visit the auction and bid on that window. But doubt crept in. Was I that kind of rich jet-setting person? To fly to London and bid at an auction? I am, after all, just a guy who grew up in a depressed middle class town. Nobody I knew would even conceive of doing some thing like that.

Anyway, I never did it. And I now regret it. It's been years and I sometimes think about that stained glass window and the opportunity that I missed to be a mister fancy pants that trots around the world pursuing his dreams and fulfilling his desires.
I don't know what happened to that window. I don't know whether it sold at auction or not. And I have tried finding it online but it seems to have disappeared totally. Maybe it's in a private collection somewhere.

Watch my vlog of this story here:

---

---

An update on this story

One of my patrons found the knight from an auction ten years ago

I was astounded, and so very pleased, to see that one of my patrons went through the effort to actually track down this window. It was sold at auction for 2,000 Euros ten years ago. You can see that auction result here Here is a picture for:

But this isn't where the story ends.

An update on this story

This stained glass knight had a message for me - I didn't realize it at the time - but I know it now

when I first found this stained glass window I fell in love with it. I love stained glass and I have a deep affectation for knights. But, at that time, that was as far as it went.

I haven't seen this knight for ten years. And now that It has revealed itself to me again I see it with new eyes and a new revelation.

Ten years ago I never gave a single thought to a pilgrimage. It wasn't something that ever crossed my mind. But for the past couple of years it has been a very important part of my life. I spent a year training to walk the Way of Saint James in Spain (It is a 500 mile pilgrimage). And last year I successfully walked that pilgrimage. It took me 43 days and it was an amazing experience in my life.

And now I can see what this knight was trying to tell me:: You are going to walk a pilgrimage!

It is clear to see that this knight is on a pilgrimage. There are four indicators of this and I have annotated this in the next picture.

1. The olive tree (which are all over Spain)

2. The knight has a backpack (This is something that every pilgrim needs)

3. There is a Templar cross on his backpack (Templars were an order of Knights that protected pilgrims on their pilgrimage)

4. That big orange/yellow fan shape is a scallop shell. ( Which is the universal symbol for a pilgrim. Every pilgrim walking the way of Saint James wears a scallop shell on his backpack)

So, this knight, ten years ago, was sending me a message; although I didn't realize it on a conscious level. But the message sunk in somewhere deep inside me. And ten years later I walked the Way of Saint James, as a pilgrim.

And this pleased the knight. I am sure he protected me along the way. And now he has returned to my life as a reminder of the message he sent me and the gift he gave me. And I am grateful.

 

---

Yet there is more

So, I have decide that while I can't actually own this exact stained glass window I can make one myself. And that is what I am doing. Now that I have an image of the work I can duplicate it. Stay tuned. I will update this page as I progress with this project of making a stained glass replica of this window. I have printed it up in actual size (20 inches in height) turned it black and white then used that to create a template so I can make it! Yay!