E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Frank van Drogen,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE BROCHURE SERIES
OF ARCHITECTURAL ILLUSTRATION.
VOL. I. JULY, 1895. No. 7.
ITALIAN WROUGHT IRON.
The wrought iron of the middle ages, and of the time of the Renaissance, and even down to the last century, in Italy, France, and Germany showed, in the crudest examples, the principal virtues of all true decorative art. The reason is not far to seek. The difficulties in the way of working the material with ease imposed certain limitations in design and execution which could not well be disregarded. The lack of machinery (which is responsible for much of the uninteresting character of our modern work) necessarily compelled the use of comparatively simple and straightforward methods. It was difficult to avoid the tell-tale marks of the smith's work, and there were limits beyond which his skill could not carry it. Furthermore the designer, taking these limitations into account, learned to make the most of his possibilities, and to adapt his design to the material—to design in the material. How different from the methods generally in use now! Designs made to imitate something done in another material, turned out by the hundred from a machine which leaves no indication of its work, with all interest of craftsmanship lacking, except in places where it may be vulgarly thrown in your face to make it look as if it had been "hand-made."
Clever imitations of old work are produced, and indeed some of the examples shown in our plates are reproductions and not originals; and if we cannot have new designs of equal excellence this is the next most desirable thing. And so far as the illustrations are concerned the difference between the original and the reproduction could never be distinguished.
The subjects chosen for the illustrations of this number are lanterns and torch-bearers. The lanterns were in reality torch-bearers, as they were made for holding masses of combustible material which were held in place by the central spike.