BABA Books
Historic Ironwork: Architectural
English Ironwork of the XVII & XVIII Centuries
By Starkie-Gardner
BABA member price £23
Non-member price £28.50
First published 1911
I have always regarded this book as the Bible. It is the volume to which all the subsequent books on the subject refer. Researched with dedication by the acknowledged master of the subject, the book deals with a subject which was still considered a valued part of the studies of students of architecture, when classical detail was a respected form of embellishment and before the decline in respect for craft skills. Full of excellent – oh so difficult to take – photographs of iron gates and screens, many now sadly gone. Look at the picture in the closing pages of No 10 Downing Street when it still had its lantern.
Book Review by Chris Topp Artist Blacksmith Magazine Spring 2005