Decorative Antique Ironwork

Drawn from a rare 1924 source by a noted scholar, over 4,500 outstanding examples of antique ironwork run the gamut from door knockers and grilles to jewelry and religious symbols.

Spanning 5 centuries of magnificent ironwork designs by Italian masters, this superb archive encompasses both simple and elaborate ornamentation for doors, windows, gates, balconies, stairs, and other architectural features. A remarkable variety of motifs are depicted — from gracefully executed florals and foliated elements to striking portrayals of mythical beasts. 172 black-and-white illustrations.

Drawn from a rare 1924 source by a noted scholar, over 4,500 outstanding examples of antique ironwork run the gamut from door knockers and grilles to jewelry and religious symbols.

From an exceptional collection of the finest examples of German ironwork comes this rich source of royalty-free images for artists and craftspeople. More than 270 illustrations depict a broad variety of magnificent ironworks from the city of Düsseldorf, with finely rendered examples of the craft ranging from elaborate castle gates to ornate weather vanes. Balustrades, screens, balcony railings, and other decorative ironworks abound in this handsome compilation. Derived from a rare, turn-of-the-century portfolio, these splendid designs offer uncommon glimpses of a rich array of motifs that are sure to inspire and delight designers, architecture enthusiasts, antique lovers, and devotees of vintage ironwork.

The enormous diversity and enduring beauty of ornamental ironwork is celebrated in this singular sourcebook. Sixty antique plates showcase metal doors, balconies, window arches, gates, corner pieces, decorative embellishments, and more, many wrought with gargoyles, human figures, and florals. An accurate and invaluable reference for art historians, architects, and designers.

Artists, illustrators, architectural and art historians, restorers, dealers, collectors--anyone interested in historical ironwork--will welcome this magnificent treasury of decorative designs produced between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Over 400 illustrations on 86 plates, reprinted from a rare nineteenth-century French volume of copperplate engravings, reveal a remarkable variety of decorative and utilitarian objects. Focusing primarily on German Gothic ironwork designs that embellished palaces, cathedrals, castles, houses, and other structures, the plates depict hinges ornamented with mythical sea creatures and dragons, door knockers decorated with female figures and human heads, keyhole plates wreathed in foliage, chests reinforced with iron bands displaying elaborate artwork, intricately laced metalwork on screens and grilles, elaborately designed keys, finials, candle stands, and a host of other architectural and ornamental elements. Notes to the plates identify the objects and provide, when available, a source and date for each. A splendid record of the inspired decorative flourishes of the past, these beautifully detailed plates will also serve as a lavish source of inspiration for today's designers. Dover (1996) republication of the plates from "Serrurerie, ou les Ouvrages en Fer Forgedu Moyen-Age et de la Renaissance, " published by Librairie Tross, Paris, 1870.

Over 1,500 attractive black-and-white illustrations — drawn from balconies, gates, grilles, stair railings, and elsewhere — incorporate floral and foliate designs, human and animal figures, musical motifs, heraldic crests, mythological figures, geometrics, more.