At this time nothing was beneath the smith, even the nails
being of most varied and beautiful designs, demanding attentive
study.
I20 IRON.
Hitherto scant reference has been made to the ironwork of the
Low Countries. Owing to their vast prosperity previous to the
Spanish yoke, everything was renewed, and there are scarcely any
buildings, and little ironwork throughout the Netherlands, older
than the fourteenth century. Though the stamped hinges at Lifege
were doubtless imported, they had some influence on Flemish work.
Except these, the grilles protecting the archives in the Halle
de Bruges, which, though probably of the fourteenth century, are
a light rendering of our Winchester grille, are almost the only
ancient specimens in the country, and they seem to have had a
curious influence on the Flemish ironwork of the seventeenth
century. Some rude and massive strap-hinges, fringed with small
trefoil leaves on stems, on the outer doors of the Hotel de Ville
at Brussels, may also be of considerable antiquity.
