The Drawings · 1693

A New Book of Drawings.

Twenty engraved plates that transformed the art of ornamental ironwork in England.

Jean Tijou 1693 "A New Book of Drawings"

In 1693, Jean Tijou published A New Book of Drawings, a landmark collection of engraved designs that transformed the art of ornamental ironwork in England. The volume presented gates,balustrades, panels, and elaborate scroll compositions executed with a fluidity and architectural precision unseen before. Tijou fused French Baroque refinement with bold structural clarity, introducing a style defined by dynamic movement, deeply layered foliage, sculptural masks, and heraldic symmetry. Through this publication, he established a new visual language for wrought iron-one that would influence craftsmen for generations and come to define the high Baroque manner in English metalwork. I would like this to be on the home page. I would like the pictures on there to be able to swipe through them.

The Plates

Frontispiece of Jean Tijou's Nouveau Livre de Desseins, London 1693 — FrontispieceNouveau Livre de Desseins / A New Booke of Drawings, invented and designed by Jean Tijou. Sold by the author in London, 1693.

Engraved Tijou design for an arched iron screen with lions supporting a wheatsheaf — Plate IArched screen: lions couchant flanking a wheatsheaf, engraved by P. Vander Banck.

Engraved design for a crowned Baroque iron gate with cartouche cresting — Plate IIGate with royal crown and cartouche cresting.

Engraved design for an iron railing with urns, eagles and crowned panels — Plate IIIRailing with urn finials, eagle and crowned panels.

Engraved Tijou elevation for the Hampton Court screens, dated 1693 — Plate IVElevation designed for Hampton Court. Jean Tijou, A.D. 1693.

Engraved gate design with Irish harp, mask and crowned piers — Plate VGate with harp and mask — the Irish panel of the Hampton Court screens.

Engraved sheet of Hampton Court gate and pier panel designs — Plate VIGate flanked by two pier panels, drawn for Hampton Court.

Engraved screen bay from Jean Tijou's Nouveau Livre de Desseins, 1693 — Plate VIIScreen bay from the Nouveau Livre de Desseins, engraved by B. Gentot.

Engraved design for a staircase balustrade with scrolled panels — Plate VIIIStaircase balustrade with rake, landing panel and loose scroll studies.

Engraved studies of an iron rosette panel, finial and acanthus capital — Plate IXStudies: rosette panel on an eagle standard, finial, acanthus capital.

Engraved elevation of a garden screen with vase finials and arched bays — Plate XGarden screen: arched bays, vase finials, a central mask.

Engraved design for a crowned gate with plumed cartouche cresting — Plate XIGate with plumed cartouche and crown, engraved by P. P. Bouche.

Engraved sheet of six Baroque iron panel designs with masks and foliage — Plate XIISix panels: masks, urns and acanthus, drawn and engraved by Vander Banck.

Engraved designs for a balustrade in perspective with panel elevations below — Plate XIIIBalustrade in perspective, with pier finial and panel elevations beneath.

Engraved staircase railing designs with scrolled panels — Plate XIVStair-case railing: two long panels and two uprights.

Engraved design of a vine cartouche with cherubs and grape trails — Plate XVCartouche and vine trail, with cherubs and a bearded mask.

Engraved fragment of a scrolled overthrow with a trumpeting cherub — Plate XVIFragment of an overthrow: trumpeting cherub and acanthus scroll.