The thistle was distinctly characteristic of German iron work, and also the trellis-work pattern as seen on the doors of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries (Fig. 205). Armorial bearings fill the panels between the trellis-bands, with richly forged rivets or nail-heads on the lozenge intersections. Sometimes the decoration was gilt or silvered, and the ground underneath painted red or black. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the iron work in Europe and England partook of the character of the Renaissance, and towards the end of the former century had all the foliated character of that style.
Fig. 204.—Lock, 18 inches high, in the Klagenfurt Museum; German; Fifteenth Century. (G.)
The illustration (Fig. 206) shows a typical example of French work of the end of the sixteenth century.
Fig. 205.—Iron-bound Door in the Monastery of Krems; Late Fifteenth Century. (G.)
In Flanders, Holland, and in England, especially during the eighteenth century, decorative iron work was again in great demand, and some beautiful work in gates, grilles, and railings were executed. Among the finest works of this period are the celebrated gates or screens designed in the style of the Renaissance and made by Huntingdon Shaw for King William III. for his palace at Hampton Court. These gates, which are fine examples of hammered work, are now in the Kensington Museum. The iron gates and railings made in the reign of Queen Anne and later were often of beautiful design, in which the capabilities of the material were excellently expressed. Some fine examples still exist in the gates and railings of the old houses in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and some good ironwork of this type may be seen in the screens in St. Paul’s Cathedral. This beautiful style died out during this century, when a more extended use of cast iron crept in, and if we except the work of the late Alfred Stevens and of a few other designers and architects, there has been nothing of an artistic value that one can point out in England in the domain of cast-iron productions. In fact, it is a curious but common expression to say of a bad design for almost anything that it “looks like cast iron.” Designers for cast-iron work might take some good hints from the old Roman or Pompeian bronzes.
Fig. 206.—Mirror, Wrought Iron; French Work; Sixteenth Century.