The Zettler Glass Manufactory was founded in Munich in 1870 by Francis Xavier Zettler (1841-1916) and his father-in-law Joseph Gabriel Mayer (1808-83) – two men who combined a deep religious conviction with a love of medieval culture.
Branches opened first in London and Paris and then a studio in New York, where the so-called Munich style proved particularly popular. A selection of Zettler panels formed a travelling promotional exhibition that toured North America in the early 20th century, securing orders for more than 50 cathedral churches in the US and Canada.
Two years before the studios closed in 1934, the collection had taken up residence with other smaller-scale works at the Higgins Armory Museum, founded in Worcester, Massachusetts, by local industrialist John Woodman Higgins (1874-1961).