The practical book of early American arts and crafts . ine carefully all the old gatesand railings that chance presents to view. An abundantreward of interest awaits the quest. While it is mani-festly impossible to discuss individual instances of rail-ing ironwork at length, it would be an inexcusable over-sight to pass on without calling especial attention tothe several specimens illustrated. The railing from thebalcony on the front of an old warehouse belonging toStephen Girard, on Delaware Avenue, in Philadelphia,is of wrought iron. The other example is partlywrought and partly cast. Foot-s
The practical book of early American arts and crafts . ine carefully all the old gatesand railings that chance presents to view. An abundantreward of interest awaits the quest. While it is mani-festly impossible to discuss individual instances of rail-ing ironwork at length, it would be an inexcusable over-sight to pass on without calling especial attention tothe several specimens illustrated. The railing from thebalcony on the front of an old warehouse belonging toStephen Girard, on Delaware Avenue, in Philadelphia,is of wrought iron. The other example is partlywrought and partly cast. Foot-scrapers, fastened into blocks of stone ormarble beside doorsteps, also lent themselves to inter-esting manipulation. They were both simple and 60 EARLY AMERICAN ARTS AND CRAFTS ornate, but always well proportioned. The illustrationsshow how elaborately aU these articles might be treatedupon occasion. Weather-vanes as an object of embellishment werenot neglected by the Colonial architects and the smithswho wrought for them. In addition to the scrolls,. Fig. 2. Weather-vane, wrought iron, from the mill built by William Penn, SamuelCarpenter, and Caleb Pusey, at Chester, Pennsylvania, 1699. Collection of Pennsylvania Historical Society. tendrils, or other ornaments that graced the stock, itwas not unusual for the peak to bear an appropriatedevice—such, for instance, as the mitre on the vane ofChrist Church, Philadelphia, or the heraldic birds sur-mounting the vanes on the turrets of Mulberry Castle,in South Carolina. In the vane itself the initials ofthe master of the house or the date of its building were DECORATIVE METAL WORK 61 often pierced: witness the vane at Graeme Park, Hor-sham, Pennsylvania (see Colonial Homes of Phila-delphia and Its Neighbourhood, Eberlein and Lip-pinoott), or the vane from Samuel Carpenters millshown in the illustration (Fig, 2). Then, again, thevane was not infrequently so cut that the pattern ofsome beast, bird, or fish would be silhouetted agains
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade191, booksubjectdecorationandornament
