CONTEXT 36 Graham Tite has once again been on the trail of historic cast iron street furniture. STREET -WISE One year ago, in Context 32 (December 1991) I was able to report upon the exhibition Casting an Eye on Italy in which cast-iron street furniture was elevated to the status of fine art. Since chat time, the firm of Domenico Neri, which had installed Castingan Eye on Italy using a selection of its own holdings of historic cast iron, has continued to thrive. From the time in the early 1960s when Neri began to supply his first castings to Icalian cities chat wished to replenish their (then) sadly depleted stocks of ornamental street furniture, it has grown ro become a firm of considerable size. More importantly, his company's activities have become a stimulus for the revival of historic centres up and down the country. Neri has never restricted its activities to the merely commercial sphere. It has organised and sponsored seminars; taken the first steps ·towards the creation of an Icalian Museum of Cast Iron which will house a permanent collection of examples; staged the lavish exhibition in South Kensington, and edits and distributes its own review of the topic. Arredo e Cittd (Furnishing the City) appears several times per year and circulates among architects, town planners, city engineers etc., as well as to art lovers. Although the magazine obviously contains a good deal of publicity material for Neri's products (in both historical and modern idioms) as well as for others in the field, the value of Arredo e Cittd extends far beyond its role as a publicity vehicle. By concentrating exclusively on the subjects of cast-iron, street furniture and lighting, the magazine draws the reader's eye and attention unerringly to chem and corn pels us co chink about their importance as ingredients in the whole architectural and town planning scene. For example, the latest number Qanuary-June 1992) contains a 26page illustrated feature on the topic of 'scansaruote'. Entitled In the Shade of the Archways it deals with a small but important item of traditional building; the small impedimenta placed at the feet of gate-piers or archways to stop the scuffing of wheeled traffic. In the age of horse-power such items were universaf; sometimes it was customary to build walls with a curve to chem in order to ease the passage of coaches or waggons. As so often when Neri has nominated a topic such as this, a variety of forms is placed on record, and the reader's eye is awakened co a novel item of architectural study. In conservation terms, the value of the service provided by Arredo e Cittd is easy to appreciate: inventory, rescue and rehabilitation processes can only benefit when public and professionals alike are provided with detailed information and with a wealth of examples such as these. It appears chat the 'scansaruote' was equally popular in France and in Italy as an ornamented cast-iron item. The firm of Simon Perret Freres of Lyon was among che suppliers from its catalogue of offche-shelf castings. In French it is called a 'chasse-roue'. Further examples have been located plentifully in both Florence and Bologna, and doubclessly cities in most parts of the world could furnish examples of this indispensible item. The French and Italian examples could adopt a number of shapes and varieties of decoration in addition to the basic half-hoop or plain bollard forms. Animal forms were a popular alternative to foliage designs. The heads of dragons, or dogs, lions or grotesque satyrs have all been recorded. All of these must have evoked very ancient traditions of 'gate-guardians' including the 'herm' with its man-like head and torso, or the Roman 'Lar compicalis' - the tutelary god of the crossroads, who was also depicted as a statue with human features. Arredo e Cittd is readily available to British readers and forthcoming numbers will feature such topics as the alleyways of London and castiron bollards as an item of street furniture. Arredo e Cittd is available from Domenico Neri sri, SS Emilia 1622, 47020 Longiano (FO) Italy. Graham Tire (rel: (0730) 816363) can answer enquiries and can supply copies of rhe catalogue of Casting an Eye on Italy. 33
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