Elevator Grilles thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ironwork, Room 114e

Elevator Grilles

1893 - 1894 (designed)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Richly ornate panels with stylized repetition of geometric motifs in strap iron and small spheres.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Parts
This object consists of 2 parts.

  • Grille
  • Grille
Materials and techniques
Wrought and cast iron with a Bower-Barf finish
Brief description
Elevator grilles in iron with a Bower-Barf finish, designed by Louis Henry Sullivan, Chicago 1893-1894.
Physical description
Richly ornate panels with stylized repetition of geometric motifs in strap iron and small spheres.
Style
Gallery label
'American and European Art and Design 1800-1900' These grilles screened the lift shafts from floors 3 to 13 in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, one of the last buildings designed and built by the firm of Adler and Sullivan before their partnership was dissolved in 1895. Sullivan, trained as an architect at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, developed a rich evolutionary style of ornament which he described as organic. Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked in Sullivan's office from 1888 to 1893, always acknowledged his influence.(1987-2006)
Object history
These grilles screened the lift shafts from floors 3 to 13 in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, one of the last buildings designed and built by the firm of Adler and Sullivan before their partnership was dissolved in 1895.

Bower-Barf is a black rust-resisting finish applied to steel and iron only and is not applicable to non-ferrous metals. It is named after two men, Mr. Bower and Mr. Barff, who originally developed the process.

Iron or steel items to be finished are heated in special furnaces to approximately 1700 degrees Fahrenheit, at which temperature they are cherry red in color. While at this temperature, live steam and volatile hydrocarbon liquids are injected in to the furnace for a period of several minutes. The chemical action of the heat, water-vapor and hydrocarbon gases on the iron and steel is such that the surface of the items being treated become oxidized and carbonized. The surface becomes covered and impregnated with a hard, non-porous, grayish-blackish coating. The surface with this treatment practically becomes impervious to moisture. After parts are removed they are dipped in a special oil and wiped off. The finish becomes a dead black and is extremely beautiful and very practical for interior use.
Historical context
Sullivan, trained as an architect at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, developed a rich evolutionary style of ornament which he described as organic. Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked in Sullivan's office from 1888 to 1893, always acknowledged his influence.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • David Lowe, Lost Chicago, Boston, 1975, p.140
  • John Vinci, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Stock Exchange Trading Room, Chicago, 1977, pp.22-23
  • Brian A. Spencer ed., The Prarie School Traditiion: The Prarie Archives of the Milawaukee Art Center, New York, 1979, p.32.
  • Louis H. Sullivan: Architectural Ornament Collection, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, exhibition catalogue, Edwardsville, Illinois, 1981. fig.37.
  • Sarah C. Mollman, ed., Louis Sullivan in the Art Institute of Chicago: The Illustrated Catalogue of the Collections, New York, 1989, cat. no.163
  • Pauline A. Saiga and Robert Bruegmann, Fragments of Chicago's Past: The Collection of Architectural Fragments at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1990, p.139.
  • Donald C. Pierce, Art & Enterprise: American Decorative Art, 1825-1917, The Virginia Carroll Crawford Collection, Atlant, 1999, p.376
  • David Van Zanten, Sullivan's City: The Meaning of Ornament for Louis Sullivan, New York, 2000, p.61.
  • John Szarkowski, The Idea of Louis Sullivan, Boston, 20000.p.95.
  • Martha Goodway, `The patination of iron by bower-barffing,' in Susan La Niece and Paul Craddock, eds., Metal Plating and Patination, Cultural, technical and historical developments, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann Ltd., 1993, pp.155-160. ISBN. 0750616113
Collection
Accession number
M.9 to A-1985

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Record createdApril 10, 2000
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