From Sherwood Forest to Texas, an iron story –

A pair of 19th-century lacquered bronze and wrought iron irons designed by architect Edward William Godwin and manufactured by Hart, Son, Peard & Co. has been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This is the first time a metalwork designed by Godwin has been purchased by a museum.

The dealer was Paul Shutler of Broadway, Worcestershire, England, who purchased the pieces from an antiques center in Connecticut last June. Before being sold, they were in a private collection in the United States. They’re a long way from their origins in a stately mansion on the edge of Sherwood Forest.

Edward William Godwin was an English architect and furniture designer, one of the leaders of the British Aesthetic Movement and a pioneer in blending Japanese art with traditional and modern British styles. Godwin was born in Bristol in 1833. After graduating from high school, he studied with architects and engineers. He began working on commission before he was 20 years old. He established his practice in 1854, but his career really took off in 1864 with the completion of his first major project, Northampton Town Hall.

He began as a follower of the Gothic Revivalism of art critic John Ruskin, but by the mid-1860s he was firmly integrated into the aesthetic movement. He was a friend and collaborator of James McNeill Whistler in the 1870s and designed Whistler’s Japanese-style residence in Chelsea, the White House.

Godwin began designing his own furniture and interior decoration in 1867 because he found nothing commercially suitable for his innovative Anglo-Japanese style. When he designed Bovell House for the seventh Earl of Cowper at Newthorpe, outside Nottingham, in 1872, he also designed much of its furnishings, although he preferred the Robin Hood associations of the site and designed Bovell House in the Old English Revival style.

Hart, Son, Peard & Co made all the ironwork for Beauvale House to Godwin’s specifications. This includes fireplace furniture. You can see that this complete set of fire grates from Beavale House has the same front guard and legs as the floral crest top, except that the guard is all cast iron and the lacquered bronze on top is almost worn.

This does not mean that the Andy Long now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, came from the Beauval House. Hart, Son, Peard & Co has been selling cast and wrought iron architectural features (balustrades, railings, lampposts, gates) in catalogs for churches, public buildings and homes since 1970, and in 1873 expanded into furniture. Godwin’s Beauvale fire set was listed in an 1876 catalog in several different finish options—”Berlin Black and Brass Disc,” “Berlin Black with Bright Dog,” or “Berlin Black All Bright”—and in four different heights—18, 20, 22, and 24 inches. The Museum of Fine Arts example stands 22 inches tall and is a bright dog.