Saturday, February 5, 2011

Bronze Torch Holder

I just had a weird intuition that one of you out there in Blogland needs some reference for a dragon torch holder.


Maybe you’re a concept artist or a fantasy illustrator or a set designer. Maybe you’re working on a design for a castle of vampires or a lair of dragon tamers. Anyway, here it is for the taking. The piece is from Siena, Italy, and I found it in on page 395 of an 1887 edition of the Magazine of Art.
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Download the 1887 Magazine of Art from Google Books

18 comments:

T Arthur Smith said...

Do you know who drew it?

James Gurney said...

T. Arthur, no, I don't remember seeing a byline. It was probably a wood engraving from a photo or a drawing.

Anonymous said...

I'm tempted to say wow, that's just what I was looking for. But I must say I'm fascinated, I'll archive it properly and promise to use it.

I have to say by the way, that the amount of knowledge and love you put in your blog and your books is priceless. I cannot describe in words how much you have helped and influenced me. Thank you very much James.

John Fleck said...

I love stuff like this - Thanks James!

Karin Corbin said...

Thanks, I do collect images of this kind of item. I create buildings in miniature, fantasy structures in real 3D.

Another great dragon detail that you might like is that there is a long history of using sheet metal and cast metal dragons on the ends of metal downspouts. An image search with the keywords dragon spout will bring up many examples. But you can start with this lovely one from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/29158-popup.html

Claire Vrabel said...

Oooo... I like! Very cool! :)

Steve said...

It's striking how this piece incorporates some floral elements; leaves and flower blooms, amidst all the scaliness.

Julia Lundman said...

Hi James,

This is fantastic! I just adore this kind of decorative detail work that you often see in European architecture, although clearly this is an illustration.

You wrote recently about decorative details in art and architecture, and I meant to post at that time a flickr set that I found about a year ago. Peacay's photostream has many sets of collected prints and illustrations, as well as photographs of exactly this kind of work. It is an amazing resource, lovingly collected by the author of the photostream. (name unknown)

Here is the url to the photo sets:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/

David Glenn said...

That's cool. It looks like something I would've written about. Did you see any other cool pictures in that magazine?

Julia Lundman said...

oops - I meant to post this url:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lineae/

but the other one is just as great.

Abel said...

Good looking out!

Ray Lederer said...

Thanks! I actually did need this:)

Anonymous said...

Pietro Tacca's fountain in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence.

Gordon Napier said...

I like that. Interior draco. I like the folreate tail, rather medieval looking.

Björn said...

Can anyone help me out -- I can't actually download any books from Google books. Is it because I'm not Aymarikkaen?

James Gurney said...

Bjorn, I'm not sure exactly how the page loads up on your computer, but look for where it says "PDF" above the page window. If you click on that, it should start your computer downloading the whole book.

Unknown said...

I own exactly that winged dragon; it is a gilded bronze wall torch holder. Bought it in a flea market.

Unknown said...

I own that very same winged dragon; it is a gilded bronze wall torch holder; I bought it in a flea market. Great piece.