Wrought Metal Work in America 
O 
with all forms of foreign art and appre¬ 
ciation of them, and willingness and ability 
to pay for expensive results, has in turn 
stimulated the craftsman to rival his foreign 
brethren. But it must be acknowledged, 
both by architect and client, that these results 
have been attained only by the devoted 
exertions and continuous, unremitting labor 
of those at the head of the great wrought 
metal firms of America. 
As an adjunct to good architecture, wrought 
metal is of the highest consequence. Finial 
and cresting, balcony and railing, grille and 
gate, all add immensely to the most effective 
composition in masonry, if well done. If 
ill done, the most imposing design is ruined. 
The whole gamut of expression is ready to 
be played upon by the cunning hand of the 
smith. From strength and protective energy 
to the daintiest fancy of the drawing-room 
table, the skilful master workman’s most 
highly trained and sympathetic touch finds, 
in metallic media, a worthy means of expres¬ 
sion. No object in wrought metal is too 
elemental in form or too wholly utilitarian in 
purpose to bejunworthy of the artist’s finest 
F H. Smith, Arch’t. Jno. Williams, New York 
DOOR GRILLES, MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK 
Carrere & Hastings, Arch’ts. Jno. Williams, New York 
thought—none too purely decorative to lie 
outside the field of careful, practical crafts¬ 
manship. One of the most flexible of the 
fundamental materials of building, wrought 
iron readily responds to each and every 
mood of the designer—as a comparison of 
the several railings or door grilles illustrating 
this article will readily make apparent. Used 
alone or in combination with masonry, there 
is scarcely any of the lesser features of the 
facade which may not be done in metal. 
Whole staircases, most elaborately wrought, 
were executed in France in the xvn century, 
31 
