Ventilator Grille thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Ventilator Grille

ca.1892 (designed and made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Voysey produced several variations of this theme. Voysey stands out on several counts from most of his fellow architect-designers who joined the Art Workers’ Guild and contributed metalwork to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Instead of setting up his own workshop, he continued the traditional practice of handing over his designs to a trustworthy firm for execution. This encouraged him to ignore the repertory of ornamental techniques used by many metalworkers attached to the Arts and Crafts movement who habitually embellished their productions enamels and semi-precious stones. Of Voysey’s major contemporaries, only W.A.S. Benson favoured a similar simplicity of form and decoration, and Benson, significantly had his own factory in Hammersmith which was filled with the latest machinery. Unlike Benson, however, who increasingly devoted his energies to his metalwork to the exclusion of architecture, Voysey did not design a great deal either for precious or base metals, and when he did so it was usually with his architectural schemes in mind. Some of his finest and most characteristic designs for metalwork are the hinges fitted to furniture and doors.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Cast iron
Brief description
Ventilator grille, cast iron, London, ca.1892, probably made by Thomas Elsley & Co., designed by C.F.A. Voysey
Physical description
Ventilator grille of cast iron, the stepped rectangular frame divided horizontally into two stages, with a silhouette of a pair of affroned, and a pair of confronted birds, with stylised trees.
Dimensions
  • Height: 16.1cm
  • Width: 24.7cm
  • Depth: 2.5cm
Style
Production typesmall batch
Credit line
Accepted in lieu of Inheritance Tax by H M Government and allocated to the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2014
Object history
Voysey produced several variations of this theme. See Joanna Symonds, Catalogue of Drawings by C.F.A. Voysey in the Drawings Collection of the Royal Institute of British Achitects, London, 1976 [929] and D. Gebhard, Charles C.F.A. Voysey, Architect, 1975, figs 10 and 50 (the latter showing a three stage grille in a bedroom of Lowicks, near Frensham, Surrey).
Summary
Voysey produced several variations of this theme. Voysey stands out on several counts from most of his fellow architect-designers who joined the Art Workers’ Guild and contributed metalwork to the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society. Instead of setting up his own workshop, he continued the traditional practice of handing over his designs to a trustworthy firm for execution. This encouraged him to ignore the repertory of ornamental techniques used by many metalworkers attached to the Arts and Crafts movement who habitually embellished their productions enamels and semi-precious stones. Of Voysey’s major contemporaries, only W.A.S. Benson favoured a similar simplicity of form and decoration, and Benson, significantly had his own factory in Hammersmith which was filled with the latest machinery. Unlike Benson, however, who increasingly devoted his energies to his metalwork to the exclusion of architecture, Voysey did not design a great deal either for precious or base metals, and when he did so it was usually with his architectural schemes in mind. Some of his finest and most characteristic designs for metalwork are the hinges fitted to furniture and doors.
Bibliographic reference
John Brandon-Jones, ed. C.F.A. Voysey: architect and designer 1857-1941, London, Lund Humphries in association with Art Gallery and Museums and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, 1978, cat.no. E1, p134.
Collection
Accession number
M.70-2014

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Record createdJanuary 24, 2013
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