| has gloss | eng: Muntin or Muntin bar is a strip of wood or metal separating and holding panes of glass in a window. Muntins can be found in doors, windows and furniture, typically in western styles of architecture. The combination of muntins and glass creates a grid system dividing a single sash or casement into smaller panes, called "lights" or "lites". Until the middle of the 19th century, it was economically necessary to use smaller panes of glass, which were much more affordable to produce, and fabricate into a grid to make large windows and doors. However, many considered the division of a window or glazed door into smaller panes to be more architecturally attractive than use of large panes. In the UK and other countries, muntins (typically called "glazing bars" in the UK, or astragals in Scotland) were nevertheless removed from the windows of thousands of older buildings during the nineteenth century in favor of large panes of plate glass. Restoration of these buildings in the following century increasingly included reinstatement of the glazing bars, which many now see as an essential architectural element in period buildings. |
