Across the project’s development, Bleat founder Tristin Norwell became a familiar face in the Retrouvius shop and has incorporated salvaged, reclaimed, vintage and sustainable materials throughout the studio’s multifunctional editing rooms. Earlier this month he gave us the grand tour.
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Our latest stock includes two festoon fire surrounds designed by Alfred Stevens and manufactured by Coalbrookdale in 1875.
The two pieces are a design classic with several museums boasting similar. The Victoria & Albert Museum and the Tate Galleries house many works by Stevens in their collections.
We are offering them in original condition, complete with manufacturer's stamps, having recently been removed from a London home.
Alfred Stevens (1817-1875) was one of the leading figures of the Classical and Renaissance Revival, alongside a remarkable set of peers; Julia Margaret Cameron, Frederick William Pomeroy, Bruce James Talbot, William Gibbs Rogers and Willian Harry Rogers.
An accomplished designer and artist he rejected contemporary dinstinctions and worked across many disciplines, including painting, sculpture and ceramics - moving successfully from the fine arts to industrial design. Between 1857 - 1860 he worked as a designer at the Coalbrookdale factory in Ironbridge, the leading manufacturer of iron goods of the time.
He left a body or work and legacy of extremely high quality.
Stevens was heavily influenced by his studies of Renaissance painting, working in Florence and Rome during the 1830s. His enthusiastic use of traditional iconographic language reveals an admiration for Michelangelo and the Renaissance artists. His work typifies the spirit of the age in which it was produced, when modern manufactured goods were given mythical and often false histories.
