File:Examples of household taste (1875) (14782223452).jpg

Identifier: examplesofhouseh00smit (find matches)
Title: Examples of household taste
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Smith, Walter, 1836-1886 Smith, Walter, 1836-1886. Industrial art of the International Exhibition
Subjects: Centennial Exhibition (1876 : Philadelphia, Pa.) Decorative arts
Publisher: New York, R. Worthington
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

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and as such is noteworthy. The panels on the sides of the box, as well asthose on the lid, are covered with delicate scroll traceries, figures and gro-tesques, inlaid with white metal in the bronze. This was done by first engravingthe design to be inlaid in the surface of the bronze and cutting out the spacesto be inlaid. The metallic composition was then melted and poured over thebronze so as to fill these lines and spaces. When the metal has cooled, thesurface is rubbed down and polished, and the sharp edges of the bronze closeddown about the inlay, so as to make the two metals adhere closely together. INDUSTRIAL ART. 485 On the same page we engrave a Casket, made by Elkington & Co., ofBirmingham, England, that, besides some beautifully modeled figures in theround and in repousse, is farther ornamented with work that resembles theinlaying described above, but which is a variety of damascening. Here thedesign is cut according to the pattern in the surface of the metal to be deco-
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Enameled Plaque : Russian Court. Enameled Antique Reproduction : Elkington &> Co., Birmingham. rated, after which a thin plate of gold is laid over the design, and hammeredand burnished into it, forcing down the edges of the enclosing metal, obliter-ating the incisions, and restoring the original polish. The Messrs. Elkingtonexhibited several methods of damascening in their superb display of metal-work. Beside that just described, there were examples of damascening bysimply gilding the surface with gold-leaf, and fixing it to the metal by bur-nishing. A third method was by incrustation, a process in which channels arecut in the metal, into which gold or silver wire is hammered and afterwards 486 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. rubbed down. The most artistic and elaborate of these damascenings, shownby the Elkingtons, are not their own work, but are done for them in Spain,by the metal-sculptor Zoloaga, who is unrivaled in this particular branch ofhis art. Among French goldsm

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