Wrought iron grille, Cyril Colnik, Milwaukee, ca. 1913
Object name
Grille
Maker
Colnik, Cyril, 1871-1958
Date
ca. 1913
Dimensions
18 ½”H x 9”W
Materials and techniques
Wrought iron
Original location
Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Current location
Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Description
L-shaped made up of eight curving wrought iron straps. Each of the eight segments features a slightly different pattern.
History
This grille is said to be a sample piece created by master metalworker Cyril Colnik while designing the ornamental ironwork for the Paula and Erwin Uihlein house, Milwaukee. According to the Villa Terrace, Colnik modeled the pattern for the grille on the wrought iron gates of St. Swithun's shrine in Winchester Cathedral, England.
Trained in Vienna and Munich, Colnik settled in Milwaukee in 1893, where he created decorative wrought iron work for dozens of homes and public buildings until his retirement in 1955. The Colnik Collection of the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum includes more than 200 examples of Colnik's work donated to the museum by his daughter Gretchen Colnik in 1991. The Villa Terrace is also home to the Colnik Archive, an extensive collection of original drawings, blueprints and photographs donated by the Kohler Foundation in 2002.
Sources
Bertha Kitchell Whyte, Craftsmen of Wisconsin (Racine, WI: Western Publishing Co., 1971); Virginia Jones Maher, "The Wrought Iron Artistry of Cyril Colnik" Wisconsin Academy Review 44, no. 3 (1998) (available online via the State of Wisconsin Collection): http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/wiacrev/index.html A brief biography of Colnik is available from the Wisconsin Historical Society's Dictionary of Wisconsin History: http://wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=14917 An image of the gates of St. Swithun's shrine is found in Philip Walsingham Sergeant, Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Winchester, 1899, p. 43 (available online via Project Gutenberg, 2007): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20346/20346-h/20346-h.htm
Owner
Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum
Object #
VT1992.15
Rights
(c) 2008 by Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum. Contact the owner for more information. http://www.cavtmuseums.org/
Digital collection
Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database
Digital identifier
VT003
Digital format
image/jpeg
Type
Physical object
Keywords
Metalwork; Grille (barrier element); Architectural element; Component (object); Building Component
