Pre-Restoration Iron Firebacks

Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 135, pp. 213-224., 2017

Three carved achievements of the Stuart royal arms in West Country churches bear distinctive decorative features that indicate they were the work of the same woodcarver. The same features have been identified on a group of iron firebacks dated to 1618 and after, suggesting that the wooden patterns from which they were cast were the work of the same, anonymous craftsman.

Journal of the Antique Metalware Society, 2022

Examination of a heraldic stamp that was used on several castings, all from a particular series of Tudor firebacks, reveals progressive deterioration in its condition that provides evidence of the relative ages of the castings.

Wealden Iron, Bulletin of the Wealden Iron Research Group, 2nd ser., 27, pp. 18-26, 2007

Regional Furniture, 28, pp. 39-48, 2014

A small group of iron castings, the moulds for which were formed using carved wooden patterns made in south-east England between 1638 and 1652, can be associated with a pattern-maker known only by the initials, IM. Examination of the distinctive work of this craftsman, who may also have been involved in joinery such as furniture-making, identifies some signature motifs which may aid the identification of such pieces.

2011

A survey and new perspectives of Celtic or La Tène art from Britain is presented. Following Spratling (2008:189), Celtic art is defined as ‘ornament or pattern and animal/human/supernatural images in metal and other media’. Regional and temporal variations in the type and usage of decorated artefacts are summarised. Three case studies, made of different media, are presented: metal scabbards, bone and antler weaving combs, and pottery. By asking the question ‘why decorate?’ it is argued that the decision to decorate an artefact can affect its life history, marking it out from undecorated artefacts of the same type. Rather than serving a single function, decoration was employed to serve multiple social goals throughout the Iron Age. Different forms of social expression, such as feasting, elaborate display, or weaving, are significant at any one time or place. It is argued that decorated artefacts often played a significant role in these different social arenas. Contrary to many past discussions, decorated artefacts in media other than metal are demonstrated to have been important in negotiations of social power and cosmology.

Literature covers carpentry marks from medieval times to the twentieth century in timber structures, yet information on marks in nineteenth century wrought iron structures is scarce. This paper elucidates on the iron brand and assembly marks discovered via in situ investigations of early nineteenth century wrought iron structures. The findings of a Belgian structure - which was believed to be produced in UK - are confronted with marks and stamps found back on structures in Germany.

BAR Publishing, 2021

This volume presents a new approach to decorative practices in Iron Age Britain and beyond. It aims to collapse the historic distinction between art and craft during the period 400BC-AD100 by examining the purposeful nature of decoration on varied Iron Age objects, not just those traditionally considered art. A case study from East Yorkshire (UK), a region well known for its elaborate Iron Age metalwork, is presented. This study takes a holistic approach to the finds from a sample of 30 sites, comparing pattern and plainness on objects of a wide range of materials. The analysis focuses on the factors that led makers to decorate certain objects in certain ways and the uses of different patterns in different social contexts. A concentrated study on evidence for use-wear, damage, repair and modification then draws on primary research and uses assemblage theory to better understand the uses and functions of decorated objects and the ways these developed over time.

Bulletin du bibliophile, 2011

Active from 1493, Étienne Larcher is the first known printer in Nantes, where he produced six editions, ranging from the moral poems of Jean Meschinot, church statutes, regional laws and ordinances, to a devotional book of Hours. This last imprint extant in a single copy held by the Musée Dobrée (inv. 998-6-1), recycles some of the metalcut blocks previously used by his brother Jean Larcher dit Du Pré, active chiefly in Paris. Larcher’s edition, though the first and only extant book of Hours printed in fifteenth-century Brittany, has received relatively little scholarly attention regarding the printer’s reuse of these blocks. This article examines his selection and adaptation of figurative blocks, particularly interchangeable blocks within a frame, which speak to his experimentation of text and graphic page design. The variations in Larcher’s book of Hours exemplify a method that economized production costs while it also catered to a market increasingly interested in illustrated printed books.

Oxford Art Journal, 2017

This article addresses the artistic and technological conditions adjoining the design of the iconic French fireplace, called the ‘cheminée à la royale’, as developed at the royal atelier of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, circulated in commercial prints by Pierre Lepautre and Jean Bérain the Elder, among others, and theorised by scientists shortly thereafter. The aim is to consider how the forms, materials, and technologies employed in its making contributed to period understandings of fire, heat, and sensation at the turn of the eighteenth century. In his treatise La Méchanique du feu (1713), Nicolas Gauger explained how the fireplace’s curvilinear forms and reflective surfaces enhanced heat efficiency and smoke management. This, he proposed to the Académie royale des Sciences, helped qualify its status as a machine, and in 1720, the institution included his invention into its approved records. What began as a luxurious furnishing at Versailles thus set the template for understanding physical phenomena as well as the bodily effects that they engendered, and in the process brought architecture and decoration into critical dialogue with art, technology, and the human body.

Oxford Journal of Archaeology 33(3), 2014

Recent years have witnessed the formal acknowledgement of the privileged position from which decorative media in Iron Age Britain have traditionally been studied. Tension remains, however, between the study of the decorated metals that formed the basis for models of Celtic expansion, and decorated non-metals. Despite the general paucity of decoration in Iron Age Britain, decorated non-metals are still not viewed in the same light of social significance as metals. This paper will examine weaving combs from Glastonbury Lake Village, highly decorated objects of antler and bone. By concentrating on the fabrication and display of weaving combs, I aim to highlight the potential significance of the aesthetic effects of these objects.