Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-19

The grills to the churches of ST. Roche and
ST. Germain rAuxerrois furnish matter for
much commendation to the newspapers OF
the time. The grills made for the Palais de
| Justice in Paris cost as much as 2O0, 600
| livres Amateurs took as much interest in
these products of the forge as in paintings
| or bronzes, so much so that locksmith
named Gerard, who had executed an iron
canopy in 1769, put it on view for three
| days, charging those who would inspect it
three livres apiece. This canopy was orig
inally intended for the church of Ste. Gen.
evieve, but the price asked-5O,000 iivres-
proving too much, it was never erected
there.
One Royal Locksmith.
The art of the locksmith was also
greatly appreciated in France, kings
even taking part in its practical
details; like Louis XVI, forgetting
tion Of lock. One of the curiosities OF
Paris mentioned by Gilbert of Metz in 1422
was certain house in the Rue Bourdonnais
which possessed as many locks as there are
days in the year. The lock to Golfer of fif-
teenth century work has a representation
| of the Last Judgment. Philibert de Lorme
paid in 1859 to the master locksmith, one
Mathurin Bon, as much as Coll Gvres for
works executed at Fontainebleau. Louis
MIL amused himselfwith the art, not only
giving his locksmith pension of 300 livres,
but even setting him apart a room in the
new chateau of st. German. In the eight
eenth century much fine work was produced.
Mercier, in his Picture of Paris, e1claims:
ga locksmith among us has become an artist
iron has become as supple as wood"
Germany in the fifteenth century pro-
duced much wrought-iorn work of rather
special character, such as the grave crosses
and sepulchral monuments to be seen in the
cemeteries of Nuremberg. Iron was
also employed for well canopies,
such as that at Antwerp attributed to
Quentin Matsys. Originally blacksmith
from Louvain, he came to Antwerp to seek
his fortune. There, as the story goes, he
fell in love with the daughter of painter,
and, to propitiate the daughter as well as
her father, exchanged the anvil for the
painters palette; and before his death in
1881 he was successful in helping to raise
the school of Antwerp to a celebrity equal
to that of the schools of Bruges and Ghent.
Ironwork was extensively produced at
Augsburg-under the fostering care of the
Fugger family-talling the shape of brackets
projecting from the walls, and grills over
fan lights or in a balcony. Grotesque
knockers are also common in Nuremberg.
Keys were sometimes elaborately decorated,
and the part which is now common ring
was once occupied by little figures in full
relief with coats of arms and the like. The
French Revolution was the cause of much
splendid ironwork being destroyed, when,
in 1893 certain provinces had to gather
together every available piece of
iron to transform into pixies and
other weapons. Much of the ironwork of
the abbey of st. Dennis perished in this
way; and even in England grills have been
sold tor old iron because they hid the sculp-
lures in Westminster Abbey.
The GrilI-work of To-Day.
The greater part of the decoration of grills
at the present day is produced by means of
stamps or molds, which are impressed on
the iron while heated and soft. Supposing
leaf or fioweris required, one of the proper
form is forged in relief in steel, and then is
driven into larger block of pasty steel
shaped like punch or wedge, thus forming
the stamp or die necessary for the purpose
of decoration. Leaves, again, can be ham
mered out and welded on separately. Up
to the reign of Henry Will, griIls were
architectural in design, Queen Elizabeth's
tomb in the Abbey forming one of the first
instances of the use of border of natural
iowers-roses-in a tomb-rail of iron. The
roses were cut out of sheets of metal, shaped
on the edge of some instrument like vice,
and then fixed on by brazing To
make inscriptions, holes are first drilled
and then very small keyhole saw
inserted. After the fire of London, iron
came largely into use for building purposes,
and very fine work was produced in the
reign of William Ill A Frenchman named
Tijon published a book of designs in 1893
for the use of smiths, in which appeared the
gates which were little later ordered by
the King for Hampton court, and executed
by Huntingdon Shaw, the talented smith,
under the general superintendent of Sir
Christopher Wren. The beautiful gates of
chiselled and polished iron now to be seen
in the Louvre are of this period, and were
executed form the designs of Daniel Marot.
who architect to William I'LL of Eng
land. Wherever the old-fashioned red brick
houses with their tiled roots and quaint
dormer windows are to be seen, their iron
staircases, ratings, and the like will proba-
bly, be found, as, for instance, in Lincoln's
Inn Fields or bloomsbury Square and in
many suburbs.
More Curious Than Beautiful,
Cast iron is not SO susceptible of artistic
treatment as the same material when
and the old specimens which
have come down to us are, generally
speaking more curious than beautiful.
Cast iron was used for cannon-from
the fourteenth century-as we'll as for grave
slabs, fre-dogs or ,andirons, firebacks, and
the like One freback preserved at Bruges
is dated 1865, and has two figures feet
inches in height as supporters to the shield
with which it is ornamented A fireback at
Wadhurst in Sussex, was very elaborate,
having, beside tine royal arms of France and
England quarterly with supporters, the |
Tudor badge of rose and crown, crowned |
shield and ten human figures with monkey |
or dog-like faces, as well couple of swords. |
Many frebacks have Scriptural or classical |
subjects; but one andiron that has been pre- |
served to us is decorated in a more homelv |
fashion, having on its upper portion a fig |
ure in the costume of the time of James L, |
holding a tobacco pipe in the right hand, |
and in the left jug or tankard-the first of |
which decorations would have pleased the |
roval author of the "Counterblast
Such are some of the various WAYS in
which iron has been treated decorativelv
from early times, which perhaps may prove
not uninteresting at the present dav, when
wrought iron enters so largely into the
of houses, whether for grills,
anlights balusters and screens. or for the
pretty lamp stands and brackets, in which a
,eturn has been made to early Italian work.
nanship. Chambers Joat,7aal.