CIRCA 1845-1855, ATTRIBUTED TO A.W.N. PUGIN AND POSSIBLY SUPPLIED BY HARDMAN

This lanterns fleur-de-lys cresting relates to French-fashioned railing patterns published in the architect A.W.N.Pugin's Designs for Iron and Brass Wirk in the style of the 15th and 16th centuries, 1836 (pl.21). It is likely to have been supplied by the celebrated Birmingham 'Medieval Metalworker' John Hardman (d.1867), whose metal manufactory had been established shortly after his 1837 meeting with Pugin. The Pugin archive relating to Chirk (lot 500) shows designs for related fleur-de-lys, not only for firegrates in the Long Gallery, but also for the East Window of the Chapel (see lot 500), which was inserted by E.W. Pugin in 1854.