Victorian Metalwork Sample Archive (1 results)
Published by n.p., ca. 1890]., [Paris:, 1890
Seller: Zephyr Used & Rare Books, Vancouver, WA, U.S.A.Zephyr Used & Rare Books
Contact seller5-star sellerNine sample cards, sized 9 x 12 in., thick green-coloured card stock, with 127 metalwork pieces of cut-steel, brass, steel, and pot metal fittings, carefully affixed w/ twine to the sample cards, all pieces are numbered crisp manuscript continental hand, 1 card w/ 9 narrow albumen photos in the pattern of the ornamental brass st…rip, w/ 1 sample provided and mounted offering concrete example (some of the pieces w/ minor damage, a couple have been removed leaving ghost offsetting, 1 w/ minor verdigris, dustsoiling & wear to the sample cards), still a remarkable set of sample cards, all w/ brass rivets for loose binding of metal rings or cords at gutter margins, several stamped in French. An outstanding salesman sample archive of Victorian metalwork fittings for clothing, binding ornament, and other applications in the French market during the Belle Epoque. The first two sample cards offer an extraordinary group of cut-steel jewelry and fittings, including buckles for women's cloaks, sashes, shoes, and belts, as well as square buttons, and metal cut steel sheet ornaments for uses as book corners, or applied to luxury goods. Although cut-steel pieces declined in popularity through the 19th Century, there was still a strong market following the Franco-Prussian War, and the cost savings cut-steel offered as opposed to using gemstones. The remaining cards include elaborate bosses for use on Victorian padded velvet photo albums, dressing table boxes, or other personal goods; elaborate shell pattern steel pieces; ribbing with overlapping layers akin to fish scales; brass ornaments in the shapes of butterfly wings; teardrop pendant styles, and textured brass cabochon bosses. Ornamental metalwork as decorative pieces on women's clothing, and jewelry, surged during the 19th Century as restrictive Sumptuary Laws had significantly declined, and as women began employing these items to increase their attractiveness. In addition, an interest in bolder and more substantial pieces in the late 19th Century as opposed to the delicate and unassuming filigree in the Georgian and Regency periods identified the growing confidence of women, and their spending power. See; Untracht, Jewelry, Concepts & Technology (1982); Atkinson, Trinkets and Transformations: Consolidation in Late-Ninteenth-Century Britain, In: Rose, Gender and Victorian Reform (2008), pp. 189-202.