Last Tuesday we went to the Hunt museum. We were to pick an object that we would take inspiration from, in order to create a new different object. I was interested in a few items but I was most interested in These two pieces of berlin ironwork:

 

 

A Berlin ironwork tiara in cast iron, c. 1825. It has a crescent-shaped band decorated with gothic architectural motifs; from this spring five decorated circles topped by five miniature gothic windows. Between these there is an acanthus leaf decoration, one leaf of which is damaged. This tiara, though not signed, is almost certainly by Johann C.P. Geiss, as it compares in detail with a well-documented Geiss necklace now in the Kunstgewerbe Museum in Berlin-Kopenick. Tiaras are very rare among surviving examples of Berlin ironwork jewellery.

 

 I looked at Karl Friedrich Schinkel who was a Prussian architect and his designs were sometimes used in the making of the Ironwork jewellery. 

An interesting development c.1804 was the manufacture of Berlin ironwork jewelry. First produced at the Royal Prussian Foundry, black enamelled pieces with geometric wire patterns were created. These works quickly morphed into the neo-classical style that was so popular throughout Europe. Necklaces featuring repoussé medallions depicting classical scenes were suspended or interspaced by fine chainwork. Napoleon captured Berlin and confiscated the moulds making it extremely difficult to determine the origin of ironwork - French or German? The Germans used the iron jewellery to turn the tables on Napoleon by donating their jewels in exchange for iron jewellery to fund their fight for independence. The public had a love affair with the delicate iron tracery and the the material remained in use throughout a switch to realistic design and a revival of Gothic themes.