Hall Stand
Christopher Dresser (Made by Coalbrookdale Company (Shropshire, England founded c. 1756-c. 1762))
c. 1870
- Medium
- Cast iron and marble
- Classification
- Furniture
- Dimensions
- 231.8 × 111.8 × 52.8 cm (91 1/4 × 44 × 20 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Coalbrookdale
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Applied Arts of Europe
- Credit line
- John H. and Neville Bryan Fund, European Arts General Fund, European Decorative Arts Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The nineteenth century was a period of vast industrial developments, one of which was increased efficiency in cast-iron production. As cast iron proliferated into many aspects of architecture and applied arts, design critics renounced the material as vulgar and deceitful. In an effort to beautify cast-iron products, smelting manufactories hired professional designers, like Christopher Dresser, with visually stimulating results. In this hall stand, which was part of a larger series, Dresser combined medieval foliage motifs with classical depictions of the Greek gods of wind and water, Boreas and Aquarius.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
