3-008-851 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The International Exhibition: Hereford Screen, designed by G. G. Scott, R.A., manufactured by Skidmore's Art-Manufacturers' Company, Coventry, 1862. 'This work...the grandest and most triumphant achievement of modern architectural art...the largest art-work in metal of which we have knowledge...fitly illustrates the most glorious scene ever enacted on this earth - the Ascension of our Lord...At each side are angels...The Trinity is symbolised by three circular spaces around; and surmounting all is the cross...The capitals are formed of sheet metal, worked into form by the point of the hammer...The arches are chiefly filled in with bold filigree-work, and the spandrils with a foliaceous composition...One feature of the screen which should not be overlooked or passed slightingly is the open manifestation which we have, upon viewing it, of the mode of its formation: it has resulted from the work of the hammer and the chisel - it is wrought...Every chemist is acquainted with the beautiful colours of some of the oxydes of the metals; but Mr. Skidmore has attempted the utilising such by applying them to the colouring of the iron; thus, as his work is formed of iron, copper, and brass, he has applied to it the colours of the oxydes of these metals'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.