Freset, Perrin, } Frenchmen working at Olite, Navarre, in 1444 Rodez, Conrat de, } Bonte, Daniel de, a German, working at Olite, in Navarre about 1400 Valdubia, Maestro Ferrando, Rome 1525 Fuente, Gonsalvo de, Rome 1539 Alfonso, Rome 1546 IRON WORK. Numerous iron mines have existed in Spain, especially in the Cantabrian provinces, and have been worked from very early times. They are mentioned by Pliny, lib. 34, cap. xii., and have given rise to the development of excellent metal works in the Spanish Peninsula: although in many localities this tradition has been continued until our days, the Basque Provinces have in all times excelled in this artistic industry. The want of durability and the little care taken of objects of iron-work, owing to the insignificant value of the material employed, prevent us from being able to mention any important examples of a very early date. After drawing attention to some interesting specimens which have reached us from the Spanish-Arabs, we must begin the history of iron-work in Spain in the second half of the 15th century; it continues to progress in the 16th, and produced undoubtedly at that period works which were unrivalled in Europe. The _rejas_ or chancel screens enclosing chapels in the cathedrals of Toledo, Seville, Granada, Salamanca, and other churches in Spain, of which it is much to be deplored no drawings or photographs exist, deserve the especial attention of those who follow this industry in the present day, owing to the beauty of their forms, and the inexhaustible variety of models which they present to the manufacturer. Besides specimens of Iron-work connected with arms which will be described in a separate article, the most interesting examples of Moorish manufacture which have reached us are keys of most delicate tracery; their perfect state of preservation shows that they have only been used as symbols of cities or fortresses, which on given occasions were offered to kings or great people. Even in the present day the ceremony is still kept up of offering a key to the foreign princes who stay at the royal palace of Madrid, and in a similar manner as far back as the Middle Ages, keys have been presented to Spanish sovereigns on their visiting such towns as Toledo or Seville, and a ceremonial is gone through of swearing to uphold their privileges, a reminiscence probably of what occurred when these towns were conquered from the Moors.