Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are pleased to offer this lovely pair of substantial and well cast polished Bronze Aesthetic Movement Door plates or Fingerplates by the well known Birmingham Company William Tonks & Sons. The fingerplates depict a heron standing in a pond or stream, with bullrushes, other foliage and a bee and a dragonfly flying above. There are 4 holes so that the plates can be screwed to the door.

The fingerplates bear a diamond registration mark or lozenge, dating the design to November, 1881. They also bear the eight pointed sun mark with W T & S underneath it that denotes they were made by the following company.

WT&S, W. Tonks & Sons, 3, Hill Street, woodscrew maker (S1770) then 43 Deritend, steel toy maker (PR1780), Cheapside, Birmingham, then 201, Moseley Street, Birmingham making cast and wrought brass products.

Manufacturer of architectural hardware, art metalware, campaign metalware, ecclesiastical metalwork and an early fabricator of decorative patterned tubes. The Tonks family surname is the lists of Birmingham brassfounders before the 1800s. William Tonks founded this firm in 1789 (or 1794?). They won gold medals at the 1851 and 1862 Exhibitions in London and in 1855 at Paris The larger factory in Moseley Street was opened in the early 1860s and most items now found will date from after this time.

By 1869 they had developed the eight-pointed 'sun' trade mark showing two eyes and a mouth. Later the 'WT&S' initials were sometimes inserted instead for the marks on some items but other items had a smaller, empty sun on items designed in the 1900s. (With thanks to oldcopper.org)

The Aesthetic Movement in Britain (1860 – 1900) aimed to escape the ugliness and materialism of the Industrial Age, by focusing instead on producing art that was beautiful rather than having a deeper meaning – 'Art for Art's sake'. The artists and designers in this 'cult of beauty' crafted some of the most sophisticated and sensuously beautiful artworks of the Western tradition and in the process remade the domestic world of the British middle-classes.

Height: 11 1/2" - 29.2cm

Width: 3 1/8" - 8cm

Weight: 390 g or 13.7 ozs

Condition: Very good.