Rose Iron Works show at the Cleveland Museum of Art (photo heavy)

[JHCC]

Yesterday, I visited the mind-blowing exhibit "Rose Iron Works and Art Deco" at the Cleveland Museum of Art. For those who don't know, Rose Iron Works was founded in Cleveland by Martin Rose (born Mor Rosenbluh), a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, and is still in business under the management of Martin's grandson Bob. (Fun fact: Martin's birthplace is about a nine-hour drive from the birthplace of Samuel Yellin; both towns are within the borders of present-day Ukraine.) The lighting in the gallery isn't great for photography, so I apologize in advance for the quality of the following photo dump from my phone.

One of Martin's most well-known pieces:

And a new piece by Bob inspired by it:

A sample board of forged flowers:

A spray of forged roses that Martin used to take with him on sales calls, to show his skill to potential customers:

Gate detail:

Two panorama shots (wobbly because I had to take them with a handheld phone) showing old and new tooling for making the muse screens:

A candlestick Martin made as a wedding present for his wife:

The gallery is surrounded by a large number of these figure studies (roughly 18"-24" high), which Martin assigned to his workers during the Great Depression to keep them employed. Note the depiction of both ancient and modern methodologies.

There were a lot more of these, but I ran out of time and had to go before I could photograph all of them.

Finally, here's a YouTube link to a video (which the museum has playing on a loop in the gallery) about the creation of the new Muse screens. There's some really fascinating material here about incorporating advances in technology that should provide food for thought for those of us doing this kind of work today. Martin (like his contemporary Edgar Brandt) was a fervent advocate for incorporating new methods and techniques (such as oxyacetylene cutting and welding) in his own work, and this is a great example of how laser cutting, EDM, and 3D printing can be used to good effect in modern smithing (no matter what Gabriel Craig of the Historic Blacksmith Conservancy calls "the Yellin police" might say).

 

 

 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

No need to apologize for the photo's they look fine to me. What a wonderful walk through some of the work by past blacksmith's, that would be impossible for me to recreate. I love it.

Thanks John,

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

[JHCC]

Also, here's a good article about Rose Iron from the show's curator:

Rose Iron Works: The Cleveland Company’s Journey from Art Nouveau to Art Deco

[Frosty]

I thought I replied to this post John but I must've gotten sidetracked reading the article, then . . . .

It's all beautiful iron and of a quality I'm not qualified to evaluate beyond, Oh WOW!

Frosty The Lucky.

[Frosty]

Pretty short read, wish there was more about company, works, etc. worth the read though.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nobody Special]

Well, I can't help much, but there's a small bit more here at Museum – Rose Iron Works. The company is still around and this is their museum's page (think this is okay as not a commercial link since it's to the company museum's page, but if it's not allowed since it's the company's museum, please delete). They did some really nice glasswork too.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I really don't see a problem with the link, thanks for it.

I can’t control the wind. All I can do is adjust my sails. ~Semper Paratus~

[Rojo Pedro]

Wow. Thanks for sharing!