By E. Graeme Robertson and Joan Robertson
Thames & Hudson
$65

Were you to randomly open this reference work to any of its abundant, evocative illustrations—of balconies, say, in the French Vieux Carré in New Orleans or of bridges in Leningrad—you would likely be drawn into a deeper investigation of the subject matter. Reprinted directly from the first edition of 1977 and largely a photographic essay, all in black and white, the book has become a classic in the literature of architecture and design. Motivated to bring attention to the aesthetic value of a distinctive form of decoration, E. Graeme Robertson, an Australian authority on cast iron, and his daughter, Joan Robertson traveled the globe to compile this visual inventory of cast iron ornamentation, pointing out its national variations, relationship to architecture and contribution to the attractiveness of buildings. They limited their scope to cast iron adornment for buildings in major cities in the British Isles, the Continental Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, but also touch on its use in such outposts of empire as India, Bermuda and Tahiti. That many of the photographed buildings have since been demolished, either by human design or the inevitable processes of nature, lends, at least for this reader, a nostalgic tone. A glossary and bibliography complete this substantial resource for art historians, architects, designers and anyone concerned about preserving our architectural heritage.