Decorative Antique Ironwork

Henry R. d’Allemagne, Henry R. d'Allemagne

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780486220826
• eBook ISBN: 9780486141053

4,500 objects on 415 plates illustrate the remarkable variety of decorative ironwork from Roman times to the first part of the nineteenth century in this inexpensive Dover edition of all the illustrative material from the 1924 French catalogue of the extensive collection in the Le Secq de Tounelles Museum in Rouen. This pictorial documentation by the French scholar and collector Henry René d'Allemagne is the most valuable source of information now available for scholars, art historians, crafters, dealers, collectors, and those interested in antique ironwork.
The work is divided into two parts. The first part, Architectural Ironwork, includes grilles, locks and padlocks, keys, escutcheons, door knockers, doorknobs, hinges and mountings, handles and pulls, bolts and latches, signs, and brackets. The second part, Small Iron and Steel Objects, includes jewelry, toilet accessories, key rings and handbag frames, small boxes, scissors and sewing accessories, smoking accessories, religious symbols and liturgical objects, sundials, tower and table clocks, bindings, notebook covers, furniture, lighting fixtures, grilles, fireplace accessories, kitchen equipment, and various tools and instruments.
Informative captions include places of origins, materials used for new purposes, characteristics of the objects, and historical facts connected with them. The captions have been translated and supplemented with a new introduction and bibliography of d'Allemagne's work by Vera K. Ostola, Associate Curator of Medieval Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Part I/ Architectural Ironwork

I HENRI LE SECQ DES TOURNELLES
BORN IN PARIS ON APRIL 25, 1853
Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honor)
FOUNDER OF THE MUSEUM

2 Façade of the Museum and of the Tower of Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence). Sixteenth century.

3 General view of the nave, photographed from the gallery above.

4 The portal of the Saint-Laurent Tower, main entrance to the Museum. M. Le Secq des Tournelles standing among his colleagues. From left to right: M. Bidault, the Secretary General; M. Paulme, Curator; the chief guard; M. Le Secq des Tournelles; M. Henry d’Allemagne entering the Museum.

5 Overall view of the altar grille from the Abbey of Ourscamp (Oise). Wrought iron. Beginning of the thirteenth century. (The grille is set in a modern wooden frame.)

6 Detail of one of the scrolls in the central part of the grille from the Abbey of Ourscamp (Oise). Wrought iron. Beginning of the thirteenth century.

7 Fragment of an imposing choir screen, made into a fire screen.

French work. Beginning of the thirteenth century.

8 Tabernacle doors decorated with applied ornaments of wrought and chased iron. The coats-of-arms are those of Lotin de Charny. Flemish work. Fifteenth century.

9 Grilles and fragments of grilles from screens, tabernacle doors, or doors of sacristy treasuries. Wrought iron. France, Italy, and Germany. Thirteenth to sixteenth centuries.

10 ABOVE: Grille from a religious community in Évreux. Cut-out sheet iron. Fifteenth century. BELOW: Openwork iron guichet (wicket; grille for a door orifice) provided with its own shutter. Spain. Fifteenth century.

11 A, B: Furbishers’ (sword cutlers’) signs. c: Bracket carrying a pulley. D: Balcony support (brace). Rouen. Fifteenth century. E: Lock hasp. Sixteenth century. F: Lock bolt. Louis XVI period. G: Chandelier suspension hook. Seventeenth century. H: Crémaillère (pot hanger) with three trammel hooks. Sixteenth century. I: Repoussé iron sign, with the representation of Saint Sebastian. J: Grille. Lorraine work. Seventeenth century. K: A sacristy treasury door. Sixteenth century.

12 Window grille with wickerwork motif. Wrought iron. Italy. End of the sixteenth century.

13 Window grille ornamented with hearts and cable-twisted bars. Wrought iron. Fifteenth century. From a house of Jacques Coeur in Bourges.

14 Interior partition screen. It is composed of flowering vine scrolls issuing from a vase. Iron bands curled into scrolls held together by collars dropped over joints while hot. Venice. Sixteenth century.

15 ABOVE: Chapel grille. Wrought iron. Italian work. Eighteenth century. BELOW: Balcony railing formed by scrolls assembled by threading. Wrought iron. Germany. Eighteenth century. Both grilles changed into fire screens.

16 LEFT: Model for a window gril in the “ Italian manner,” decorated with rosettes. Wrought iron. Seventeenth century. CENTER: Grille for a con...

Table of contents

• DOVER BOOKS ON ANTIQUES, COLLECTING
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction to the Dover Edition
• Other Books by Henry René d’Allemagne
• Part I/ Architectural Ironwork
• Part II/ Small Iron and Steel Objects