A Rare Andrew Handyside & Co. English Cast Iron Fountain, No. 33, c.1879

A rare Victorian cast iron fountain by Andrew Handyside & Co., Britannia Iron Works, Derby, corresponding to Design No. 33 in the firm’s Catalogue C of 1879.

The fountain is formed as an elegant two-tier composition, rising from an additional substantial weighted cast iron square base allowing tbe fountain to anchor itself within a pond. A classical fluted pedestal leads to a large scalloped lower basin. Above, a slender baluster-form support carries the smaller upper basin, surmounted by its original decorative fountain head.

Andrew Handyside established the Britannia Iron Works at Derby in 1848, developing it into one of Britain’s most important nineteenth-century iron foundries. The company produced an extraordinary range of architectural and ornamental ironwork, from bridges, railway structures and market buildings to fountains, garden seats, urns and other decorative pieces. Its work was exhibited internationally and exported throughout the world.

This particular design can be securely identified through Handyside’s own contemporary trade literature. It appears as No. 33 in Catalogue C, An Illustrated Book of Designs for Fountains and Vases, issued in August 1879, with the associated Handyside price list revised in April 1880. The survival of this documentary evidence allows the fountain to be attributed to the Britannia Iron Works with considerably greater certainty than is possible with much surviving nineteenth-century ornamental ironwork.

The fountain has survived in exceptionally evocative, unrestored condition, retaining extensive layers of historic painted surface beneath more than a century of natural oxidation and weathering. The rich, variegated surface ranges from deep iron brown and to remnants of earlier painted decoration. We have deliberately left this untouched.

Importantly, the fountain retains the principal elements illustrated in the original Handyside design, including its pedestal, both scalloped basins, baluster supports and upper fountain head.

Designed to operate as a working fountain, water rises through the central column to the upper fountain head, falling first into the smaller basin before cascading into the larger basin below. Once installed within a suitable reservoir and connected to a modern recirculating pump, the original design can once again function as intended.

A wonderfully sculptural piece of Victorian garden architecture in its own right, the fountain would form an exceptional centrepiece to a formal garden, courtyard, walled garden or large circular pool.

Condition: Original weathered surface with extensive historic paint, oxidation and patination consistent with age and prolonged exterior use.
Literature: Andrew Handyside & Co., An Illustrated Book of Designs for Fountains and Vases, Catalogue C, August 1879, Design No. 33; associated price list revised April 1880.