English: Print, 1693, Jean Tijou V&A Museum no. 25082:9

Techniques - Engraving, ink on paper

Artist/designer Jean Tijou, (designer), Michael Vandergucht, (1660 - died 16/10/1725) (engraver)

Place - London, England

Dimensions - Height 25.6 cm (excluding mount), Width 37.3 cm (excluding mount)

Object Type - This print is an engraving, an image made by cutting lines into the surface of a flat piece of metal, inking the plate and then transferring the ink held in the lines onto a sheet of paper.

Subject Depicted - Across the centre of this print is a design for a staircase. The two free-floating elements above and below it are details from the Hampton Court Screen, the most important work in England by the French ironworker Jean Tijou (active in England 1688-1712). The Hampton Court Screen is a magnificent set of 12 highly-ornate, wrought iron panels incorporating symbols of the British Isles and connected by railings; this enclosed the end of the Fountain Garden at Hampton Court Palace. Tijou began it in 1689, it took him three years to make, and he was paid £2,160 for it.

A small part of the Hampton Court Screen almost identical to the detail in the bottom right corner of this print can be seen in the V&A's Ironwork Gallery, Room 114a.

Design & Designing -

In 1693, Jean Tijou published a set of 20 prints of his designs for ironwork, which included this one. In the title he explained that the prints depict gates, balconies, staircases, panels etc., mostly either made for William III and Mary II's royal palace at Hampton Court, or the great houses of the English nobility. Tijou states in the title that the prints were 'all for the Use of them that will work Iron in Perfection and with Art', i.e. other craftsmen. This was the first pattern book for ironwork to be published in Britain.