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拍品專文
The guard-rail, commissioned by Colonel Robert Myddelton Biddulph (d.1872) has spiralled and lily-capped pillars that relate to French-fashioned railing pa tterns 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 met al manufactory had been established shortly after his 1837 meeting with Pugin.
A related cage for a Mediev al stove was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, whilst the Pugin archive relating to Chirk (lot 500) clearly shows designs for related screens surmounted by 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. The latter was enlarged and recast in the Perpendicular style by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1894, when that screen was presumably taken down. However, the detailed profile of Pugin's designs does not appear to concur with this screen.
A related cage for a Mediev al stove was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, whilst the Pugin archive relating to Chirk (lot 500) clearly shows designs for related screens surmounted by 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. The latter was enlarged and recast in the Perpendicular style by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1894, when that screen was presumably taken down. However, the detailed profile of Pugin's designs does not appear to concur with this screen.