I read through all of the other book threads I could find and found a new list of titles that have been added to my purchase list, but didn't find specifically what I was looking for.

 

What I want is some suggestions for books that have good pictures, drawings or examples of older iron work in them.  Stuff like decorative ironwork or useful everyday items.  These don't necessarily have to be blacksmith oriented, but I wouldn't mind some that were.

Your question is pretty vague but here is a book I like -  Der Kunstschmied  by Otto Schmirler

Do you want Roman, Viking, Renaissance, Spanish Colonial, English Colonial, 1900's, ???

 

I have a number of books I use for historical cooking items to make dating from a range of times.

 

Early American Wrought Iron, Sonn;  has 750 pages of stuff and will cover most of this sort of questions;

 

However to me "older" is pre 1000 AD and a much harder area to research

 

Southwest Colonial Ironwork, Turley; suits my current locale

 

The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi, 1570, has several pages of engravings of cooking implements but is mainly a book on cooking

 

Can you narrow it down before I spend an hour typing in names?

I haven't read them myself, but from the few pages I have seen screencapped and the descriptions other members have provided I would recommend looking at the series by Eric Sloan shared in this thread: '?do=embed' frameborder='0' data-embedContent>> if you haven't already

 

otherwise my copy of Weygers Modern Blacksmith has pictures and diagrams on tools and step by step processes on pretty much every page.

 

what is your end goal if I may ask, I think that will go a long way towards refining the responses you receive.

These are a few I've got saved to look for on my computer. I haven't looked at all of them in person. I have several similar books at home on my shelf, mostly dealing with late 1800's early 1900's wrought iron in architecture from back when I was studying Architecture in school. There used to be this great old bookstore in the city that had a ton of these older reprints that I'd pick up when I had some spare cash. Most of those books from Dover that I have are pretty decent books.

 

 

 

 

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchresult.cfm?parent_id=466311

 

http://www.amazon.com/Treasury-Ironwork-Designs-Historical-Pictorial/dp/0486271269

 

http://www.amazon.com/Decorative-Ironwork-Designs-Pictorial-Archive/dp/0486412237/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

 

http://www.amazon.com/Ornamental-Ironwork-Illustrations-Pictorial-Archive/dp/0486298116/ref=pd_sim_b_2

 

http://www.amazon.com/Decorative-Ironwork-Designs-Jewelry-Metalwork/dp/0486404870/ref=pd_sim_b_6

 

http://www.amazon.com/Wrought-Iron-Architecture-Illustrated-Metalwork/dp/0486245357/ref=pd_sim_b_6

 

http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Ironwork-Designs-Pictorial-Archive/dp/0486443620/ref=pd_sim_b_5

I think this answers your question best. If it does I have other titles for you.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Albert%20Sonn

I had the thought fully formed in my head, but my fingers don't translate very well sometimes.

 

What I am looking for is ironwork on American soil.  I know this covers quite an area as different regions have different influences based on who settled there, but I am looking to expand my reference book collection and to collect ideas.

Sonn's book is just that if your interested in Hardware of the colonial period and after. It references date place and most times origin of like English, Dutch, French etc.

American Colonial period, doesn't cover anything of the Italian colonization of Ethiopia...

 

"Antique Iron, Survey of American and English Forms  15th through 19th Centuries" by Herbert, Peter and Nancy Schiffer

 

I also have a book on Philadelphia ironwork and a small one on the ironwork of New Orleans; but they are at my other house and so I can't cite them exactly.

I would definitely be interested in the philadelphia and new Orleans titles

This the one on Philly?

 

http://www.amazon.com/Colonial-Ironwork-Philadelphia-Philip-Wallace/dp/0486403009

 

http://books.google.com/books?id=2dnxS7Wv4esC&pg=PA221&lpg=PA221&dq=book#v=onepage&q=book&f=false

OK, so far I have spent $90 today on Amazon... 

 

Love having books on the shelf to reference when I am trying to design something out.

So what did you get?

I believe that is the Philadelphia one; but as mentioned it's a 3 hour drive away. 

 

Remind me again around Christmas and I'll look up the New Orleans one.  While the majority of the decorative ironwork displayed on balconies in New Orleans is cast iron there are some forged examples. (which should survive hurricanes better...)

reitenger - could you post the titles you have already?, so we don't post ones you have.

"Ferri Battuti Italiani"

Frank- I cannot find that title on amazon searching for it in Italian or in English.  Closest I came was -

I Maestri Italiani Del Ferro Battuto.  At the moment I can't get past the $150 price tag, but I will at some point.  My goal is to build a great reference library.

 

Wrought Iron by Fritz Kuhn is on this months list.

 

As of next month I will have to stop buying books until after my big summer trip of classes, hammering and conventions is over.

 

On an aside, when I was ordering the Sonn book on Amazon I noticed that I could trade in my copy for a $1.84 amazon gift card.  Made me feel good as I was dropping almost $60 for my copy

I have a 1939 copy of Kuhn's book in german of course and containing work not shown in the modern reprints for reason's that are obvious.  Got it for about US$10 at a Frankfurt Germany fleamarket.  I know enough German to ask about old ironwork books and was patient enough to wait the 15 minutes it took the guy to dig it out---hidden away because of current laws about display, (see above).  Not for sale just an example of what CONSTANT VIGILANCE can get you---like a lovely copy of Moxon at a used bookstore in a small Arkansas town...or a large bickern stake at a pawnshop in Oklahoma...

Thomas, I am the kind that is always prowling and hoping to find the next discovery I didn't know I needed.  That is how I found my 1947 Lincoln SA200 welder that recently found itself restored and waiting on an appropriately old truck to go onto.

Reitenger, If you get down Santa Fe way, give me advanced notice, and you can peruse some of my 300 or so smithery books.