The golden age of cast iron - 'Cast Iron from Central Europe, 1800-1850,' Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, New York, New York

Magazine Antiques, June, 1994

ADVANCES IN casting iron generated by the Industrial Revolution in England led to an outpouring of artistic objects in the nineteenth century in Central Europe, which included what is today the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, and much of Germany. An exhibition that examines this phenomenon, entitled Cast Iron from Central Europe, 1800-1850, is on view until August 7 at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York City. It comprises 230 decorative objects ranging from candlesticks and clocks to furniture and jewelry.

In Prussia there were three government-controlled iron foundries, known collectively as the Royal Prussian Ironworks, in Gleiwitz (founded in 1796); Berlin (opened in 1804); and Sayn, outside Berlin (acquired by the Crown in 1815). The government's abolition of the guild system there in 1810 stimulated competition among craftsmen and accelerated industrialization. In Berlin the use of cast iron was most enthusiastically furthered by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841), first for buildings and then for decorative arts objects. Another stimulus for the decorative use of the metal was the request by Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1813 for the donation of gold, silver, and other precious metals to support the war against France. In Berlin alone some 160,000 rings of precious metal were exchanged for rings of cast-iron, creating an association between cast iron and patriotism. In 1821 Schinkel and his collaborator Peter Wilhelm Beuth (1781-1853) issued a series of pattern books entitled Vorbilder fur Fabrikanten und Handwerker that drew on motifs from ancient Greece. They were an incentive to manufacturers to produce household goods such as ink wells, incense burners, tobacco boxes, snuffboxes, mirror and watch stands, lamps, and candlesticks in the classical revival style. As new technology reduced the cost of making cast-iron objects, designers tended to ornament them more elaborately because the unschooled consumer believed that more was better.

Jewelry was in many ways the most successful product made of cast iron. Its geometric classicism beautifully echoed the current fashion for pared down dresses in the Grecian mode. New trends in dress, jewelry, and other accessories were popularized by the proliferation of fashion publications in which they were featured. The earliest pieces of cast-iron jewelry were cameos and medallions, which were produced in enormous quantities. Jewelry from the Berlin factory was so successful that 749 molds were exported to France, but the craftsmen there could not replicate the quality of German work. One of the most successful private jewelers in Berlin was Johann Conrad Geiss (1771-1846), who often framed his cast-iron objects with gold wire. By the 1830's there were twenty-seven jewelry foundries in Berlin, but by 1838 the state-operated foundry ceased making jewelry, and by the 1840's the fashion for iron jewelry had greatly diminished.

An enduring legacy of the age of cast iron is garden furniture in the rustic, Gothic revival, and Empire styles. This is an innovation credited to Schinkel, who is said to have first encountered cast-iron furniture during a trip to England in 1826.

Assigning dates and places of origin to cast-iron products is nearly impossible. They rarely are marked and factories frequently exchanged models. Sales catalogues are rare and those that exist are undated. Nearly every country that imported cast-iron artifacts copied them, including the United States.

The exhibition was organized jointly by Bard and the Osterreichisches Museum fur angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna. The curator is Elisabeth Schmuttermeier and the catalogue was edited by Derek Ostergard. The catalogue, whose price had not been determined when we went to press, contains 356 pages, some 92 color plates, and 215 black-and-white illustrations. It may be obtained from the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 18 West 86th Street, New York, New York 10024.