and a gold medal in that of 1844; whilst, in the Exhibition of 1849, he received a confirmation of hisprevious honours. He has also been awarded a Council medal by the Jurors of the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Whilst there is much that is highly creditable in the design and execution of the fountain now engraved,it may still be remarked that, in common with most other works in metal of the present day, its ornamentsare deficient in those peculiarities of style proper to the material. This defect probably arises from thecircumstance that the patterns for iron casting are made by wood-carvers; and thus we find that panels,eminently suggestive of joinery, and foliage and fruits, which might appropriately decorate cabinet-work, toofrequently constitute the staple material of important designs carried out in iron. In the balcony railings andopen-work door-panels used in the modern street architecture of Paris , the principle of lightness is admirablyexpressed; and even though painted in the most manifest stone-colour, the eye at once detects in them thepeculiarity of the material. In too many larger ornamental objects in cast-iron, forms which it is usual tohew out of solid stone are directly imitated, in a manner which completely sets at defiance the associationswhich properly belong to the material.
Our limits preclude us from entering in detail into the history of the various improvements that have taken placein iron-casting in France . It may be sufficient to state, that they have been carried on nearly simultaneouslyand identically with those which have been introduced so rapidly and with such singular success in thiscountry, and to which we have adverted in our notice of the works of the Coalbrookdale Company (Plate XIX.).We may, however, advert to the remarkable developement of cast-iron as a decorative material, which hastaken place in Paris since the year 1818.
This progress is mainly to be attributed to the exertions of M. Calla, who, on his return from a tourin England in that year, added to his former works in Paris an iron-foundry, which speedily took a prominentposition, and exercised a great influence over the iron trade of France . It was M. Calla who first executediron ornaments on a large scale for public and private edifices; and by combining good taste with admirableexecution he was enabled to overcome the prejudice which had existed against that material, and to introduceit in many positions in which bronze alone had been previously employed. Among the principal of thesemay be mentioned a number of works executed for the Palais Royal, the Tuileries, and the Chateau ofRandan; as well as many objects, both of construction and decoration, for the Pantheon, the Church of theMadeleine , and those of Notre Dame de Lorette and St. Vincent de Paul. His admirable execution of thecolossal statues which decorate the beautiful fountain in the Place de Richelieu attests at once his skill as afounder and the applicability of the material to such monuments ; which, in fact, require but very slight atten-tion for the purpose of preventing oxidation, to ensure for them a durability scarcely less lasting than thatof bronze.