Decorative Leadwork P. M. Sutton-Goold Decorative leadwork is an unsung craft tradition with its origins in the distant past. The simple, hardly-changing process of manufacture by hand, using sheet lead and carved moulds, has long continued. Applied designs with floral, zoomorphic or human forms are rarely repeated in entirety. Similar but seldom identical designs and legends can be found in numerous artefacts, large and small, from the Roman era to the twentieth century, including Roman water tanks, Saxon caskets, twelfth-century fonts, papal bull seals, tokens of secular or religious significance, and quaint roof embellishments. Ornate rainheads have survived from Tudor times to the present day and decorative leadwork, both free-standing and applied, continues to be conserved or replenished by craftmen and artists today in response to aesthetic needs. Mrs P. M. Sutton-Goold has long researched the leadwork craft and written articles on decorated lead cisterns for Country Life and Antique Collecting. 0 7478 0082 0 (Album 249) 32 pp, 54 ills. |