I R O N R W O K. PA RT II. B EING A CONTINUA TION OF THE FIRS T HA NDB O OK AND C M R I r R D O P IS NG FR OM THE CL OS E OF THE MEDI. EVA L PE IO TO THE E EI II EzV Y END OF TH G TE TH CENTUR , EXCL UDIIVG ENGLIS H WORK RKIE G A RDNER. J. S TA - WITH ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY FO UR ILLUS TRATIO NS . ” Published or t/ze Co mm ittee o Co uncil on Edua l/i011 / f , B Y HA PMAN A HALL L I I HE l ET A C ND D. NR T S TREET W .C. , , , , 1 896 . NH 22 0? G m; V.Z PREFA CE. IN the days o f inf ant civilizations with which the first vo lum e o o o n I o n of the handb k ronwork was mainly c ncer ed , when might o c m al ne onstituted right , the smith was a de igod , and the im portan ce o f ironworking was paramount. Esteemed f o r long m o o t ages as more than an equal a ng warri rs , he only fell o the level o f o ther craftsmen when war and the chase ceased to be the sole pursuits worthy o f manhood. More than c ommon skill in forging weapo ns of attack and defence might confer resistless o f power on the brave , while the failure a weapon at a critical pass might induce a disaster which no courage could avert . ’ m o The hunts an relied on the smith s w rk , and with the advance o f c i i m iv lizat on the wood an and quarryman , the carpenter and c o n . mason, be ame dependent him for tools The Germanic races E f r which peopled ngland held the smith especially in esteem , o R to however the oman and Grecian hero might trust his arms , the northern warrior made them his inseparable com panions . ’ a h s The chieftain s sword was , like his st ndard , well known to i m o to comrades , and its fa e was traditionally handed d wn posterity ; ’ the c ustom of conferring a distinguishing name o n the knight s a sword lasting as long as the ge of romance and chivalry itself. The great value attaching to these weapons is shown by the will of Alfred the Great who left a sword o f the specified value o f a hundred and twenty marks to one o f his nobles. The venera was c o ut tion, in which ironwork held , scar ely died among v l Germanic races until the close o f the medize a period . 9 32 6 8 0 NWORK. v; [ R O R The great advance in civilization known as the enaissance i broke with many relics of barbarism , and w th it the smith lost o his excepti o nal position amo ng craftsmen. But th ugh divested of its antique glamour, and with its mighty engineering applications c yet unthought of, that part of the subje t still to be treated has o c not lost intere st , and the pr sperity of nations appears to be ome more and more bound up with that of the iron crafts . Thus S and I s with the decay of ironworking, Flanders , pain , taly ank c S fro m their high positi o ns, while Germany, Fran e , and witzerland ’ co ntinued to flourish . The proximate causes of a nation s rise c i o r decay are immeasurably co mplicated , but , as a rule , the a t ve working of iron seem s to be an indication of national strength . c This aspect of the subject ould not , of course, be entered upon ’ o f in such a wo rk as the present, but the influence one nation s o r ironworking upon that of another, through trade routes , rivalry, c . neighbourly emulation , is briefly sket hed E o I c Of all the countries of ur pe , taly exerted the most influen e R c o n art in Mediaeval and enaissan e times , for, with the seat R m c a o f the papal dignity at o e, a onst nt stream of noble and s to learned visitors pas ed and fro, with the result that every fashion and change in art introduced in Italy spread rapidly o ver C s . So i hri tendom little ronworking was practised, however, that , ’ c a I beyond the armourer s r ft, taly exercised slight influence on m . o n s ithing Germany, the other hand , shut in as in a ring c A R fen e by the lps , the hine, and the Baltic , and on the east a o by b rbarism , devel ped the most accentuated art peculiarities ; the frequent intercourse o f its emperors with Italy af ecting the m ’ ’ , c r gold and silver s iths the armourers , and other ourtly a ts, ’ b u c c t s ar ely even tinging the folk s smithcraft . The German o e ir nwork rs, as we have seen, drew their earliest inspirations o c fr m Fran e, and from over the Belgian border ; and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries native design was wholly i c . It d scarded in favour of Fren h is remarkable to find , at s o thi time , that h wever magnificent the productions o f German PR EFA CE. vii m to s iths might be, they had , in ceasing be designers , ceased to a att in individually to any celebrity, and this at a time when m o f o f who the fa e scores French smiths , were designers , was spread over half Europe. The German s chool o f ironwork natu r f L ally influenced the bordering countries o Switz erland , orraine , L r D uxembu g , enmark , and Poland ; but, apart from the indi i c c o vidual product ons of German workmen , its influen e ann t be r c I m t a ed in taly, and we only recognize it to a li ited degree in S . N E pain The etherlands , the most busy mart of urope in the ' A R c - Middle ges and enaissan e , was a common meeting ground o f c c for the arts all countries , whi h were dispersed then e far and f e c o f E S wide , to a f ct parti ularly the crafts Germany, ngland , pain , and even France. It to c is the Fren h , however, that the palm in ironworking c o f c c must be onceded , whether in point deli a y of execution , o f o r n has refinement design , inventive genius. Fra ce always b een geographically in closer touch with the centres of ancient c v li t E C i i za ion than ngland , and under harlemagne its relations with all that was c ultured were most intimate . Yet in some - R - arts , particularly metal working , the Britons , omano Britons , E a s and nglish were the superiors , just for a time the still m ore remote Irish were superior to us. The subjugation o f So uthern Italy by the Normans made them familiar with the o f E i most sumptuous arts Europe and the ast, and ntroduced o E those arts into France prior to the N rman invasion of ngland , when our superiority declined. The crusades still further en h w c ric ed their kno ledge , and the superiority of Fren h art over E I i c German and nglish , and even over tal an in ar hitecture as l c m we l as in minor arts , be ame increasingly arked as ages rolled R c on . This was particularly the case after the enaissan e , and i c in nothing s this more apparent than in the ironwork whi h, with m o f u lavish and universal patronage , beca e the most sumpt ous c o wn . chara ter , and possessed of an extensive literature of its Though every eff ort has been made to condense and abbreviate R ONWOR K. viii l o f the subj ect so as to finish it within the compass the present ic to in cl de t been found impract able u volume, it has unfor unately treated in a third c remains to be English ironwork , whi h thus and co ncluding handbo o k . hand o in 1 8 2 of the first ironwork S ince the publicati n 9 not only in this smithcraft has pro gressed uninterruptedly, book , c o l in rease in the number country but in every ther, and the arge . c s i o f skilled and even artisti smiths is a mo t grat fying sign For m o to certainly n o class is mo re i p rtant the community at large craftsm an with scope to than that o f the skilled and independent , i make his talent and individuality felt, and with freedom to asp re to c to that rank in the army o f workers whi h his qualities and him industry m ay entitle . can do All that science and technical educatio n to advance the c c cc o f smith is being taught , but no su cin t a ount the develop c ment bearings and possibilities o f smith raft , as an art, has been , , c o f f -c c written .