the craft has
ever been able to state with certainty just how the work was
accomplished. Some think that it is cast, and then treated with
the file; others say that it must have been executed by casting
entire, with no soldering. In any case, the secret will never be
divulged, for no one was in the confidence of Biscornette.

Norman blacksmiths and workers in wrought iron were more plentiful
than goldsmiths. They had, in those warlike times, more call for
arms and the massive products of the forge than for gaudy jewels and
table appointments. One of the doors of St. Alban's Abbey displays the
skill of Norman smiths dealing with this stalwart form of ornament.

Among special artists in iron whose names have survived is that
of Jehan Tonquin, in 1388. Earlier than that, a cutler, Thomas
de Fieuvillier, is mentioned, as having flourished about 1330.

[Illustration: BISCORNETTE'S DOORS AT PARIS]

Elaborate iron work is rare in Germany; the Germans always excelled
rather in bronze than in the sterner metal. At St. Ursula's in
Cologne there are iron floriated hinges, but the design and idea
are French, and not native.

One may usually recognize a difference between French and English
wrought iron, for the French is often in detached pieces, not an
outgrowth of the actual hinge itself, and when this is found in
England, it indicates French work.

Ornaments in iron were sometimes cut out of flat sheet metal, and
then hammered into form. In stamping this flat work with embossed
effect, the smith had to work while the iron was hot,--as Sancho
Panza expressed it, "Praying to God and hammering away." Dies were
made, after a time, into which the design could be beaten with
less effort than in the original method.

One of the quaintest of iron doors is at Krems, where the gate is
made up of square sheets of iron, cut into rude pierced designs,
giving scenes from the New Testament, and hammered up so as to be
slightly embossed.

The Guild of Blacksmiths in Florence flourished as early as the
thirteenth century. It covered workers in many metals, copper,
iron, brass, and pewter included. Among the rules of the Guild
was one permitting members to work for ready money only. They were
not allowed to advertise by street crying, and were fined if they
did so. The Arms of the Guild was a pair of furnace tongs upon a
white field. Among the products of the forge most in demand were
the iron window-gratings so invariable on all hous