Ok I thought  I'd post some picts of the metal work in the cathedral.  The metal work here spans a fairly long time period and you can see the development of the unique style that developed here in Bryn Athyn as they built the cathedral culminating in the work in Glencairn near by that I may post picts of later. Most of the metal work here was designed by Parke Edwards who worked at one time with Yellin. From what I understand some think Edwards work here is in some ways better than the typical Yellin iron work that is seen everywhere.

If you are ever in the Philly area and you love metal work, you owe it to yourself to come look at some of this. A good portion of what I'm posting isn't open to the public, but there is still metal work to see almost everywhere you look here.


I tried to narrow down the picts, but I still have over 100 showing just part of the detailed forged metal work in the cathedral. I'll try to keep it to 5 to 10 picts on each major area. None of it is cast, the vast majority is all forged Monel, but there are some brass or bronze accents and some exterior door surfaces that are treated in bronze.


I think I'll start off with some overall picts of the cathedral....

 

 

 

 

 

Lets start off with doors and door hardware. There are roughly 140 doors in the cathedral. All have a unique hinge/ hardware set up right down to the hand forged nuts and bolts used on the door.


Sorry if the pict quality on all these picts isn't the greatest, They don't allow flash picts, so all these were shot hand held at ISO 1600 with my little camera since the Nikon won't let me choose the ISO to shoot at.


First on the door list will be hinges.... Lets look at the details where they meet the stone work to start out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next the other end of the hinge straps.

 

 

 

 

 

Doors need locks, and locks need keys... All the lock work is again all hand forged on site, including the keys. Each key is unique and forged from monel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Door handles... Handles with levers.

 

 

 

 

Doors with knobs...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doors with rings and animals for handles....

 

 

 

 

 

 

The door at the end of the nave is unbelievable. I could spend days looking at the detail work on this door alone. Again all of this is forged, even the letters at the top. None of it is cast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This door deserves two posts for picts...

 

 

 

 

Inside there is another impressive set of grill work in I guess what might be referred to as the "chapel" possibly. The 4 panels are roughly 4' wide and 12' high and every detail is unique throughout the whole thing. Again you could spend hours looking at all the detail hera and how it's all put together....

 

 

 

 

 

Again this one deserves two posts for picts... Each finial at the top is also different than all the others. Shame they are so high up you can't see them all that well. Detail of some of the pass thru joints and collars that are used to build this.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok now how about some stair rails... 1st on the list is one in the outer court. Like everything else it's all monel antiqued to look like aged bronze. In this case however the antiquing has started to wear off from exposure to the elements and you start to see more of the bare monel than you do elsewhere. It does allow you to more easily see some of the OA welds that they did to do repairs and so on to the work when they made it.

 

 

 

 

Next stair is probably one of the latter peices of the metal work here at the cathedral and shows as far as design style goes. Shame it's not readily accessible to the public. Again all of this is sheet or bar stock and forged, not cast. Note how the work turns in two directions at the corner to match the stair. I wish these picts showed the curve better than they do. It's not a straight 90 deg angle like it looks in the picts.

 

 

 

 

 

No detail is too small for them. A few of the Monel lights, and they even made the switch plates and switch plate screws and the nuts that attach the door hinges!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not too many more to go...

The attention to detail continues to the hand forged monel window frames and window catches, plus the hold open hardware... Again each window handle is unique. These two rooms must have had 10 to 15 window handles each...

 

 

 

 

 

Another railing and some misc grates.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winding down now...


This one shows part of a monel framed glass door. Look at how they fitted the doors to the stone work. Note how they split the nuts that hold the panels together where they meet at the door to the fixed side lights. I wish the over all pict had turned out so you'd get a better over all feel for this one. Last pict shows the nut/bolt assembly from the side of the door with the door open.

 

 

 

 

And finally just a couple quick picts of some of the stone work. They put the same attention to detail and an attempt to make everything unique in all parts of the building, not just the metal work.

 

 

 

I just had to edit the last 18 posts, please do not use over sized fonts, if your eyes are that bad you can enlarge your screen to read better using the Control Plus keys    ^+

I would enjoy seeing this in person. I have always liked his "imperfect" scrolls. So many of us try to make things look machine made and perfectly matching when it doesn't need that look. The collar work is amazing!

Thanks very much for sharing.

Great thread DSW!

 

I remember reading about the "ironwork" in this cathedral somewhere years ago. It should be noted that like the keys mentioned above, the ironwork in this cathedral is not ironwork at all. It is all forged in monel, not iron.

That's pretty overwhelming and all that monel. Makes my wonder how many smiths how many years.

 

Thank you for all the pics.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

Unbelievable. Many thanks for posting all those pics. Humbling to say the least.

Very humbling to say the least! True artistry.

thanks for sharing if I get up north I will have to go and see it