3-008-779 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition - stove by Messrs. Stuart and Smith, of Sheffield, 1862. 'The stove which we engrave is one of considerable beauty; for, while in point of design it is highly meritorious, it has, superadded to form, an amount of colour such as we rarely see in works of this character. It is formed of iron, bronze, ormoulu, and encaustic tiles, which are so combined as to produce a very agreeable effect, the least successful portions being the tiles, individually considered, which suffer through the ornament not being outlined with either white or black. The structural portions are of polished iron enriched with ormoulu bosses, and at the base of the sides and along the bottom of the grate with a row of bronze rosettes; the upper comer ornaments are in perforated brass resting on a bright blue ground, and the spandrils are treated in a similar manner; the encaustic tiles forming the bevels have low-toned red grounds, on which forms occur in cream colour, blue, and green. This is a work of merit and beauty; and, as it occurs in the exhibition, is well suited with a fender in which encaustic tiles are skilfully introduced'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.