Stuttgart Gallery

Metal fittings, France and Germany, 18th century, (1898). Creator: Unknown

Metal fittings, France and Germany, 18th century, (1898). 'Figs 1-15: Metal mountings from casts in the collection of plaster casts in the Royal Technical Institute, Stuttgart....Here especially the great talent of Charles Cressent celebrated as sculptor, carver, and cabinet-maker comes into play, and his versatility was so great that he could impart to his work a uniform and very unusual charm...In the same way we find Jacques Caffieri, the famous sculptor, founder, and carver, at work on bronzes which he very tastefully applied to furniture, - probably in conjunction with Jean-Francois Oeben, the court cabinet-maker. The figures of our plate show a collection of bronze furniture mountings of the time of Louis XVI [c1774-1792], a time in which we are accustomed to see delicate decorations of a fanciful taste. To this period belongs the ornament in which swags and ribbons, doves, quivers, torches, and all kinds of trophies, are mingled into an agreeable and symbolic whole'. Plate 86 from "The Historic Styles of Ornament" translated from the German of H. Dolmetsch. [B.T. Batford, London, 1898]

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German Renaissance cartouches and works in metal and enamel, (1898). Creator: Unknown

German Renaissance cartouches and works in metal and enamel, (1898). 'Figs 1 and 2: Cartouches from a pedigree in the Sammlung vaterlandischer Altertumer at Stuttgart. Figs 3-17: Divers decorations on little altars, reliquaries and on a cross from the treasure of the rich chapel of the Royal Residence at Munich. Figs 18-20: Parts of ornamental objects. Figs 21-23: Parts of mountings on a baldrick after parchment drawings by Hans Mielich. Fig 24: Ornamental pendant from the Sammlung des grunen Gewolbes at Dresden. Fig 25: Point of a scabbard by Hans Mielich. Fig 26: Ornamental pendant from the Museum at Pest...the German artists...managed to attain the standard of the Italian goldsmiths' productions not only in regarding their technical perfection, but also of the beauty of their forms. Southern Germany especially with its numerous industrial towns, soon became a centre for noted workmen in precious metals. Drinking vessels, table-services, weapons, rings, girdles, ornamented pendants, bracelets, ecclesiastical plate, etc. gave abundant scope for rich artistic treatment'. Plate 79 from "The Historic Styles of Ornament" translated from the German of H. Dolmetsch. [B.T. Batford, London, 1898]

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Byzantine glass mosaic, coloured enamel, illumination, (1898). Creator: Unknown

Byzantine glass mosaic, coloured enamel, illumination, (1898). 'Fig 1: Glass-mosaic from the cylindrical vault above the central nave of the tomb-church of Galla Placidia at Ravenna [Italy]. Fig 2: Glass-mosaic from the walls of St. Mark's, Venice. Fig 3: Glass-mosaic from one of the semi-domes of Sta. Sofia, Constantinople [Istanbul]. Fig 4: Glass-mosaic from the vault of the Baptistery of Ecclesia Ursiana (S. Giovanni in Fonte) at Ravenna. Figs 5-9: "Email cloisonne" from an Altar-Antependium in the Cloister-church at Comburg near Schwabisch Hall [Germany]. Figs 10 and 11: Illuminations from Gospels of the 10th and 11th centuries in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg [Russia]. Figs 12 and 13: Ornaments from a manuscript of the 13th century in the public Museum at Moscow. (Fig 1 after an original drawing by A. Knoblauch, architect at Stuttgart. Fig 4, after an original drawing by A. Borkhardt. Figs 5-9, after an original drawing by H Gross, painter and teacher at the Royal Kunstgewerbeschule at Stuttgart...in almost every country of Europe works of art are found, which cannot deny their Byzantine origin'. Plate 31 from "The Historic Styles of Ornament" translated from the German of H. Dolmetsch. [B.T. Batford, London, 1898]

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