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Lot Essay
This bench is thought to have been designed between 1830 and 1840 and first cast by James Yates in Rotherham. The Gothic tracery pattern of the semi-circle in the armrests and the quatrefoil design of the backrest appealed to contemporary taste and was widely copied in variously sized benches, chairs and tables at the Fonderie de Calla fils in Paris, the iron foundry of L.I. Enhoven & Co. in The Hague, possibly Russian foundries and Janes, Kirtland & Co. in New York. A nearly identical example was sold by Johnathan McCreery Chrisitie's South Kensington, 22 June 2000, lot 105.
The design for this Bench is illustrated in the 1858 Barbezat & Cie Fonderies du Val d'Osne Catalogue, under 'Bancs de Jardin', pl. 251. (see J. Davis, 'Antique Garden Ornament', Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge, 1991, Appendix II, p. 350. and G. Himmelheber, Cast-Iron Furniture: and All Other Forms of Iron Furniture, Munich, 1996, pl. 83).
The design for this Bench is illustrated in the 1858 Barbezat & Cie Fonderies du Val d'Osne Catalogue, under 'Bancs de Jardin', pl. 251. (see J. Davis, 'Antique Garden Ornament', Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge, 1991, Appendix II, p. 350. and G. Himmelheber, Cast-Iron Furniture: and All Other Forms of Iron Furniture, Munich, 1996, pl. 83).