Decorative French Ironwork Designs

Louis Blanc

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780486135786
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Decorative Arts

Antique lovers, architecture buffs, and graphic artists will treasure this magnificent collection of decorative French ironwork designs — all of them authentic examples from the celebrated ornamental ironwork of Bordeaux. Over 1,500 handsome black-and-white illustrations depict painstakingly rendered balconies, gates, grilles, stair railings, doorknobs, and doorknockers.
Meticulously reproduced with extraordinary clarity and remarkable detail, these elegant images are derived from a rare early twentieth-century volume privately printed in Paris. They incorporate floral and foliate designs, human and animal figures, musical motifs, heraldic crests, mythological figures, geometrics, and much more.
A vibrant source of inspiration and royalty-free graphics, this collection offers artists and designers an affordable treasury of material that will bring period flair and decorative dazzle to a wide variety of art and craft projects.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Decorative ironwork, or ferronnerie, is a time-honored art in France that dates back to the Middle Ages. For centuries fine and elaborate wrought iron grilles, gates, door knockers, and balcony and stair railings were essential features in the best French buildings, from churches to chateaux. The city of Bordeaux, first known as a center for the production of arms (knives and swords), turned to the making of domestic items durin...