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This book studies the development of mechanised architectural ornament in iron in nineteenth-century architecture, its reception and theorisation, and the contexts in which it flourished. As such, it offers new ways of understanding the notion of modernity in Victorian architecture.
List of contents
Contents: Introduction: ornament unbound; Marketing ornament: iron founders and visual cultures of display; Social ornament: iron on the street; Demotic ornament: seaside ironworlds; Civic ornament: arcades and market halls; Meta-ornament: iron and the railway station; Postscript: ornament in ruins; Bibliography; Index.
About the author
Paul Dobraszczyk is Research Associate in Art History & Visual Studies, University of Manchester, UK.
Summary
This book studies the development of mechanised architectural ornament in iron in nineteenth-century architecture, its reception and theorisation, and the contexts in which it flourished. As such, it offers new ways of understanding the notion of modernity in Victorian architecture.
Additional text
'This book was well produced by the publisher, with a wealth of good illustrations. It should mark the beginning of a reassessment of cast iron as the plastic medium of Victorian modernity. Recommended.' Choice
'This book is a welcome addition to the rather small bibliography on Victorian cast iron architecture ... Comprehensively illustrated, extesively researched and with copious footnotes, it presents one of the most sustained studies to date of the development of mechanised architectural ornament in iron in 19th-century architecture ... Dobraszcyzk provides a refreshing evaluation of the contribution made by architects, designers and iron founders to the expanding urban fabric of 19th-century Britain and the world.' Decorative Arts Society Newsletter
