DOI Heft:
No. 135 (June, 1904)
DOI Artikel:Wood, Esther: Some metal-work by Omar Ramsden and Alwyn C. E. Carr
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19882#0043
Omar Ramsden and A. C. E. Carr
which they designed and wrought as
i closely as possible after mediaeval
methods, without the use of stamping
tools, depending upon the hammer
alone to give beauty to the detail
and surfaces. The whole of the
leafage decoration is forged, not cut
out (as is commonly done) from thin
sheets of metal; and no part of it is
Wjr?-^-. less than a quarter of an inch thick.
J The heraldic ornament, however, is
SSwJaMta^B BsLBSwjS V treated in a lighter method, lest the
nV'I^H^BBBB&S&^MHH^^^^W gate itself should be too heavy
open well. The ornaments are bound
.■i^Rl^ffl'^H' together in the old Venetian way—
\ ■^HHcX|l^y^|ygM9|H|M|M clasped by iron bands, which are put
on red-hot and allowed to contract in
MBBWMP^" Jn position, thus avoiding the modern
" ball-headed screw " attachment.
A repousse copper hood for the
________------- " fireplace of the dining-hall in the
New School, Abbotsholme, Rochester,
wrought iron grate by o. ramsden and a. c e. carr ^ & decoration based On the phoenix
the highest levels of mediaeval craftsmanship, in
the finest detail as well as in the general method
and habit of the fingers, and then adding whatever
the modern world might yield of apt invention and
inspiration for practical things. For it is on the
practicable and serviceable side of their work that
they have lavished the most pains and secured the
most marked success. They have subordinated
the merely ornamental and fanciful to an extent
not quickly realised by those who see first the more
elaborate and costly specimens of their work ; and
even in their jewellery and presentation trophies
they have everywhere sought intrinsic beauty and
eschewed fictitious values, save only such values—
of beautiful symbolism and traditional imagery—
as often appear fictitious to the ordinary mind.
These they have observed and cultivated to the
full; and it is not too much to say that very few
contemporary goldsmiths and silversmiths put so
much historical research and historical knowledge
into the building up of their designs. Fewer still
are able to unite, as they do, such an intellectual
bias with original creative power, a fine discrimina-
tion in the use of material, and an imaginative and
poetic sense of decoration.
Messrs. Ramsden and Carr were attracted from
the first to the use of wrought-iron on an archi-
tectural scale. One of the most exacting of their
early commissions was an iron gate and grille chalice by o. ramsden and a. c. e. carr
which they designed and wrought as
i closely as possible after mediaeval
methods, without the use of stamping
tools, depending upon the hammer
alone to give beauty to the detail
and surfaces. The whole of the
leafage decoration is forged, not cut
out (as is commonly done) from thin
sheets of metal; and no part of it is
Wjr?-^-. less than a quarter of an inch thick.
J The heraldic ornament, however, is
SSwJaMta^B BsLBSwjS V treated in a lighter method, lest the
nV'I^H^BBBB&S&^MHH^^^^W gate itself should be too heavy
open well. The ornaments are bound
.■i^Rl^ffl'^H' together in the old Venetian way—
\ ■^HHcX|l^y^|ygM9|H|M|M clasped by iron bands, which are put
on red-hot and allowed to contract in
MBBWMP^" Jn position, thus avoiding the modern
" ball-headed screw " attachment.
A repousse copper hood for the
________------- " fireplace of the dining-hall in the
New School, Abbotsholme, Rochester,
wrought iron grate by o. ramsden and a. c e. carr ^ & decoration based On the phoenix
the highest levels of mediaeval craftsmanship, in
the finest detail as well as in the general method
and habit of the fingers, and then adding whatever
the modern world might yield of apt invention and
inspiration for practical things. For it is on the
practicable and serviceable side of their work that
they have lavished the most pains and secured the
most marked success. They have subordinated
the merely ornamental and fanciful to an extent
not quickly realised by those who see first the more
elaborate and costly specimens of their work ; and
even in their jewellery and presentation trophies
they have everywhere sought intrinsic beauty and
eschewed fictitious values, save only such values—
of beautiful symbolism and traditional imagery—
as often appear fictitious to the ordinary mind.
These they have observed and cultivated to the
full; and it is not too much to say that very few
contemporary goldsmiths and silversmiths put so
much historical research and historical knowledge
into the building up of their designs. Fewer still
are able to unite, as they do, such an intellectual
bias with original creative power, a fine discrimina-
tion in the use of material, and an imaginative and
poetic sense of decoration.
Messrs. Ramsden and Carr were attracted from
the first to the use of wrought-iron on an archi-
tectural scale. One of the most exacting of their
early commissions was an iron gate and grille chalice by o. ramsden and a. c. e. carr