Scrapbook -- "Metal Work"

Description

Scrapbook titled "Metal Work." Scrapbook has dark brown covering with brown leather spine and corners. Title, "317" and "739/A14" are printed on spine. Scrapbook contains 83 pages, two of which are blank. "A. H. Davenport / 96 Washington St. / Boston" is handwritten on inside front cover. Album is in fragile condition with spine separating. Inside the cover is the name A. H. Davenport. The materials in this scrapbook document metalworking across America, Europe, India, and Asia. Most of the items are late 19th century clippings from American Architecture and Building News; there are only a small number of photographs. The clippings show fine metalworking details in a wide variety of items: gates, lamps, brazier stands, nail heads, keys, plaques, candlesticks, hinges, knockers, locks, utensils, cups, flowerboxes, weaponry (swords, pikes, halberds, helmets, armor), candy hammers, spandrels, lecterns, firedogs, hookahs, caskets, sign mounts, and even the prow of a gondola. Many of the illustrations have a date and the designer’s name. This scrapbook contains trace paper sketches (pages 16, 27, 56, 60) and what may be an illustration of a firedog with a squirrel (42).