The history of Western decorative arts is filled with splendid examples of ornamental ironwork — elaborately wrought designs for gates and fences, finials and posts, banisters, window grilles, signs and marquees, cathedral screens, and a host of other architectural and decorative features. This practical archive brings together nearly 500 outstanding examples of the ironmaker's art. Meticulously rendered in fine black-and-white line art, the designs have been reprinted from rare European and American catalogs and periodicals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including L'Art Pour Tous, Art Journal, The Illustrated London News, Harper's Monthly, and others.

The designs illustrated here date from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, encompassing the ornate figuration of the Renaissance, the exuberant innovations of Baroque and Rococo artists, and the sinuous designs of nineteenth-century ironworkers inspired by the Art Nouveau aesthetic. Artists, architects, designers, and craftspersons will find this volume an ideal sourcebook of beautiful designs — all royalty-free — from a great tradition in the decorative arts.