The sash window, or a window that slides open and closed either horizontally or vertically rather than a casement window which functions on hinges, is most common in older British and American styles of architecture. While there are still many examples of them and we know they were quite popular a few centuries ago, the origins of the sash window are a little cloudy.
It is believed that the design first came into existence either in France or Holland, but England mad the most use out of the window, which functions on a set of strings or balances and is made different from casement windows, which use hinges. By the seventeenth century the windows were fashionable in both England and its colonies in the Americas and was considered a status symbol.
We most commonly think of a sash window as one that opens and closes by sliding the panes vertically, however a one that slides horizontally goes by the same name. It is suspected that the horizontal design came into use before the vertical one.
The earliest known proof of this style exist on the Ham House in England and are dated back to the 1670s. In paintings, however, the oldest reference we have is in the 1658 painting by Vermeer entitled “The Milkmaid.” There are written references that go back even further to 1589 when an English writer referenced them in his works.
The windows did not become common until the seventeenth century, and about three centuries later they were the most common window to be found in England and the United States, though at that point they began to fall out of fashion. Georgian architecture especially is known for having a great number of them.
The most common style of this window in Georgian and Victorian architecture has two sashes of two pains up by three pains across creating a “six over six” look but there are many other styles out there. In the United States the term “double hung sash” is used quite a bit referring to the style that has two separate panels, both of which slide up and down by the use of strings or balances. The single hung sash refers to having a top immobile pane while the bottom one slides up and down with ease. And in some cases, particularly in New England churches, there are examples of triple or quadruple sashes, which are used in particularly tall openings.
While the origins of the sash window aren’t precisely known, the surviving early examples we have and the references to them in paintings and literary works have proven that they have been around for many centuries. A beautiful and neat design, their functionality has lasted a long time.
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