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| Brief description | Three iron balusters, Cyril Colnik, Milwaukee, late nineteenth or early twentieth century. |
| Object name | Balusters |
| Alternate object name | Balustrade; Railing |
| Maker | Colnik, Cyril, 1871-1958 |
| Date | 1893-1955 |
| Dimensions | Left = 34"H x 9 ¼"W
Center = 31 ½"H x 10"W
Right = 37"H x 12"W |
| Materials and techniques | Wrought iron; Cast brass |
| Original location | Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin |
| Current location | Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin |
| Description | Three balusters (stair railing supports). Left: wrought iron frame with applied brass acanthus leaves. Center: wrought or cast iron urn and scroll shapes. Right: wrought iron frame with applied iron scrolls and flowers. |
| History | Trained in Vienna and Munich, master metalworker Cyril 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 |
| Owner | Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum |
| Object # | Left = VT1992.94
Center = VT1992.77
Right = VT1992.118 |
| 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 | VT043 |
| Digital format | image/jpeg |
| Type | Physical object |
| Keywords | Metalwork; Baluster (railing component); Architectural element; Component (object); Building Component |
