Decorative custom made wrought, forged, cast iron, historic antique iron, iron replicas reproductions, museum-quality iron works.

BRIEF HISTORY OF IRON

Sumerians and the Egyptians used iron recovered from meteorites around 4000 BC, for tips of spears, daggers and ornaments.

By 3500 BC to 2000 BC smelted iron objects (distinguishable from meteoric iron by the lack of nickel in the product)

appear in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt. Iron was an expensive metal, more expensive than gold.

In the Iliad, weaponry is mostly bronze, but iron ingots are used for trade. By 1600 BC to 1200 BC, iron was used

increasingly in the Middle East, but did not supplant the dominant use of bronze.

From the 12th to 10th century BC Middle East transitioned from bronze to iron tools and weapons. The critical factor in this transition does not appear to be the sudden onset of a superior iron working technology, but instead the disruption of the supply of tin. This period of transition, which occurred at different times in different parts of the world, is the ushering in of an age of civilization called the Iron Age.

Use of iron spread from the Middle East to Greece and the Aegean region by 1000 BC and had reached

western and central Europe by 600 BC. Its use was primarily for weapons and tools before the Middle Ages.

From the medieval period, use of ironwork for decorative purposes became more common.

Iron was used to protect doors and windows of valuable places from attack from raiders and was also used for

decoration as can be seen at Canterbury Cathedral, Winchester Cathedral and Notre Dame de Paris.

Armor also was decorated, often simply but occasionally elaborately.

From the XVI century onwards, ironwork became highly ornate especially in the Baroque and Rococo periods. In Spain, elaborate screens of iron were built in all of the Spanish cathedrals rising up to nine meters high.

In France, highly decorative iron balconies, stair railings and gateways were highly fashionable from 1650.

Jean Tijou brought the style to England, examples of his work can be seen at Hampton Court,

St Pauls Cathedral. Wrought ironwork was widely used in the United Kingdom during

XVIII century in gates and railings in London and towns such as Oxford and Cambridge.

In the United States, ironwork features prominently in New Orleans than elsewhere due to its French influence.

As iron became more common, it became widely used for cooking utensils, stoves, grates, locks,

hardware and other household uses.

From the beginning of the XIX century, wrought iron was being replaced by cast iron

due to lower cost. However, the English Arts and Craft movement produced some

excellent work in the middle of the XIX century.

A number of modern sculptors have worked in iron including: Pablo Picasso,

Julio González and David Smith.

Mansion Masters Inc was established to bring back the glory days of wrought and cast iron worked by the blacksmiths who use the same materials, tools and methods used in the centuries gone.

There are no shortcuts!

Iron requires as much work today as in XVIII and XIX centuries to achieve the same results.