364 



It is well to know something about periods, for the most suc- 

 cessful and beautiful modern ironwork, generally speaking, 

 follows the better periods, that is the 13th, 14th, and 15th cen- 

 turies, or at least earlier than the 18th, 



THERE are a few American designers who have given us 

 ironwork of interesting design, and of these very notable 

 are Mr. Hunt Diederich of New York, and Mr. 

 Samuel Yellin of Philadelphia. 



Mr. Yellin is a metal worker in all the tradi- 

 tions of his craft whose work has the perfection of 



WEATHER-VANE 



OF MODERN 



MOTIF 



Designed and ex- 

 ecuted by Hunt Die- 

 derich who has turned 

 his memories of life 

 on a southwestern 

 ranch to artistic ac- 

 count, working in 

 characteristically free 

 and vital fashion 



WELL CANOPY OF HAMMERED 

 IRON 



Durability and a certain light grace may 

 be effectively combined as here; designed 

 and executed by the W. Irving Forge 



The Garden Magazine, August, 1922 



A DOOR-BELL OF 

 DIGNITY 



The wrought iron bell 

 has so much more indi- 

 viduality and enduring- 

 ness that it is a pity 

 to permit the insignifi- 

 cant little electric push- 

 button to take sole pre- 

 cedence. Courtesy of the 

 W. Irving Forge 



execution of the Renaissance crafts- 

 men. He does not "believe in any 

 purely original inventive art without 

 tradition"; but believes that "any really 

 artistic work should bear in mind the old 

 masters who left so many examples to fol- 

 low and get inspiration from"; also that 

 "the design should suit the material; that the 

 success of any craft depends mainly on the true 

 craftsman who knows the design and the actual 

 execution as well; and that this (the execution 

 and handwork) is just where the possibilities 

 and limitations of the material are expressed." 

 He is a craftsman and a traditionalist. 



Mr. Diederich is not a traditionalist. He is a 

 sculptor who likes "to work in as many different 

 media as possible. Sculpture " he says, " has been 

 too long an affair of marble and bronze ; we must ex- 

 tend its scope in order to insure it a wide accep- 

 tance. " Hence, incidentally, he works a good deal in iron, 

 and makes candlesticks, andirons, window grilles, fire-screens, 

 lamps, brackets. This itself is significant, but the way he does 

 it is more significant, the supple elegance, the daring concep- 

 tion, and the fluent vitality of the craftsmanship. Except for 

 certain rounded figures which have to be cast, his work is all 

 forged and hammered by his own hands. It is creative from 

 start to finish. These slim, nervous animal forms, deer, grey- 

 hounds, cowboys, and bullfighters, are wrought into the most 

 unconventional of motifs and designs that fill a given space 

 without any apparent effort, full of beauty and strength. Mr. 

 Diederich is the grandson of William Hunt, the painter, was 

 born in Hungary, lived on a ranch in the Southwest, studied at 

 the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, went to Spain with 

 Paul Manship, and had won a European position before the War. 



" Slim nervous strength" — after all, is not this the genius, the 

 intrinsic faculty of iron ? In whatever medium you work for art, 

 you seek expression, and each medium has in some degree its 

 own peculiar kind of expressiveness. Its limitations are easier 

 to discover than its possibilities of expressiveness. There is 

 no "pure art without tradition," but neither is there any 

 living and growing art that is all tradition. 



When you have asked two questions about a material and 

 assimilated the answers, you have the principles of handling it. 

 The questions are: first, what are its faculties, capacities, in- 

 herent characteristics; and second, what are its traditions and 

 associations? Structural steel has very definite characteristics, 

 but almost no tradition. Wrought iron, however, is as vener- 

 able as brick or bronze. It is a sober looking metal of enormous 

 tensile strength. Whoever works with it in the instinct of its 



