A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement

A Brass Menagerie: Metalwork of the Aesthetic Movement by Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio (Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, 310 Genesee St., Utica, NY 13502, 2005, 96 pages, $29.95) is the catalog for an exhibition held in 2006. For the first time, the brass furniture, lamps, andirons, hardware and accessories of the late 1800s in the Aesthetic Revival style are shown together. Research and study explain how these pieces, totally out of fashion for more than a century, should be reconsidered. It’s an eye-opening catalog praising a small forgotten part of Victorian furnishings.