In coming months we plan to have specialist features by us and guest authors on various aspects of architectural ironwork heritage. If you would like to submit an article for inclusion please contact us to see if it would be suitable.

We delighted to have Calcilda Costa write about the Scottish Ironfounders work in Brasil, a major destination for iron structures made in Scotland. View what she has to say.

We are delighted that our good friend and colleague Raffaella Bassi, Curator of the Italian Museum of Cast Iron, has written a brief feature for us on ornamental fountains in Italy. Raffaella has also discovered a drinking fountain of Walter MacFarlane & Co Ltd in San Valentino, and a fountain in Bussi Sul Tirrino by a Glasgow Foundry unknown to us - MacNaughton Foundry, Glasgow.

Cast iron monumental fountains

The many different forms of fountains that architects and engineers have created over the last 150 years to carry water into our towns and cities, before it was brought directly into each home and building, are the expression of a remarkable period of imaginative flair that involved artists and technicians throughout Europe.

The function as distributors of waters played by cast iron fountains led to their widespread installation in urban streets and squares. Their finely fashioned forms were often veritable works of art.

In the case of exclusively ornamental fountains, the objective function of supplying water became secondary, while the main intent was to please the eye and embellish a square or a park. Such cast iron fountains are distributed throughout Europe: in Italy, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal.

However, the greatest diffusion of monumental fountains occurred in France, where catalogues of the period carried the most numerous examples. In some cases they were no longer called fountains but tubs, so that the principal feature of these objects was no longer the fountain but the container for water.

Among the French catalogues a first example is the Simon Perret Frères catalogue of Lyons (photo 1). It can be noted that although there is an ample variety of finished articles, there appears to be a high level of compatibility between the various components, and these, being produced industrially, could be combined in different ways to create products that were never identical. The same consideration also applies to the other important French foundry, the Fonderie du Val d'Osne, which produced an extraordinary variety of models.(photo 2). The commissioner of the fountain could therefore choose from different options and request the assembly of different modular components to produce a personalized product (photo 3). The dimension of all these "tubs" are considerable, but these objects were even capable of reaching a size that allows them to be considered veritable monuments.

On other fountains the dominant feature is not the tub but rather the base, with either simple or elaborate decorations, spouts on the side for water and topped by a statue.

Our research in Italy brought some surprising discoveries, such as two French fountains that were installed at the end of the 19th century in the small town of Pratola Peligna -L'Aquila (south Italy). The close-ups allow us to see quite clearly the single elements and decorations composing these fountains For example on one of the fountains vine shoots grow up around the female figure at the summit, which supports a large basket filled with bunches of grapes (photo 4). The thicket of reeds with herons on the same fountain is equally intricate (photo 5) and the rich floral decorations on the other fountain are completed with dolphins (photo 6).

We are unable to understand just why French fountains of such obvious importance came to be installed in such a small Italian town, which even today has a population of just seven thousand persons, but future researches in archives may provide a solution to this mystery.

Raffaella Bassi

Curator
(The Italian Museum of Cast Iron)
Museo Italiano della Ghisa
Via Emilia, 2450
47020 Longiano (FC)
tel. 0547 652171/72

Footnote by David Mitchell: The Ross Fountain in Princes Street Gardens was cast by Fonderie du Val d'Osne, the original plaster moulds still exist in the stores of Museum de Orsay in Paris.