Studio: international art (1.1893)

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of the doors in the same way, not with any complete No, there is no denying that the early craftsman
scheme of design, but in a somewhat haphazard was often nearly, if not quite, as artful as his latter-
day successors; but if we smile at his indifference
to the canons of " good " art in little matters, such
as the occasional use of stamps and dies, we must
not forget that he had himself to forge his rods and
bars to the sizes he required out of the rough ingots
or " blooms" in which the metal came from the
smelting furnace, instead of posting an order to
Clerkenwell. This fact has no doubt something to
do with the comparatively limited use of those
straight pieces in old ironwork which form such an
important part of the modern smith's stock-in-
trade.

Next in importance and in date after hinges come
the grilles, of which that of St. Swithin at Win-
chester, shown in Fig. i, is such a fine example.
This grille is also a good instance of the supremacy
of the scroll as opposed to the straight rod—the
smith evidently thinking that the same time and
labour involved in producing the latter would be
used to greater advantage in forging curved work.
In spite of their extensive use, there are, however,
very few examples left in England of mediaeval
grilles. Yet it seems to have been a national
characteristic to fence in monuments and other

fig. 3.—from the church door of st. marein, stygia , . ... . .,. ■ ,

0 objects with iron railings or screens in a way that

fashion. Fig. 5 exemplifies this characteristic, and was not nearly so general in other countries,
in some thoroughly typical and very beautiful forged In the following extract, the author notes the
work, shows that where these early
designs are traceable to Nature at
all, they appear to have been in-
spired more by the animal than
by the vegetable world. Mr.
Gardner points out that after mere
rude animal forms, there came the
use of flowers, fruit, and foliage,
and how the foliage very soon
settled down into traditional ren-
derings of the vine, occasionally
varied by the use of the fleur-de-lis
and one or two other motives, until
the thistle, with which we are so
familiar in later Gothic work, was
introduced by the German smiths
of the sixteenth century, and very
freely used by them from that time
onwards.

It will probably be a surprise
to many people, and perhaps rather
a severe shock to those who de-
voutly believe that mechanical aids
to the production of ornament are
entirely the outcome of these two
last degenerate centuries, when
they learn that the constantly re-
curring vine and other leaves, and
the rosettes and fruit forms of
mediaeval ironwork, were for the
most part produced by hammer-
ing the hot iron into prepared dies,
a practice which is probably much fig. 4.—from the church of st. jacques, liege

less common at the present time

than it was in the " good old days." In Fig. 4 we characteristic features of distinctly English work
have a good example of mediaeval stanmed work. compared with Continental ;
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