Cylchgronau Cymru

RHYMNEY'S EGYPTIAN REVIVAL IMAGES AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BUTE IRONWORKS, GLAMORGANSHIRE, 1824-44.* The Egyptians [.] according to Plutarch and Diodorus, hated iron, which they called 'the bones of Seth'. [from 'Iron', by Mircea Eliade, in The Encyclopaedia of Religion (1977)]. ENDON'S art world learned of Rhymney in 1827 when a drawing of the Bute Ironworks featured in the Royal Academy's summer exhibition. The artist, who was also the architect of the Bute works, was John Macculloch (1773- 1835), MD, FRS, 'amateur architect. His entry, a drawing in pen and ink, depicted an Engine Blast house and regulators, with the foundries and portions of two sets of furnaces, with their cast-houses, being a part of one side of a square of a similar continuous design, forming an iron manufactory, now erecting on an estate belonging to the Marquis of Bute, in South Wales. Macculloch was an 'honorary exhibitor' rather than a Royal Academician. His drawing was included as an example of good taste in design. In the following year he again exhibited at the RA's summer show, this time with a drawing of Three furnaces, with their cast houses, being the eighth part of one side of a square, for an iron foundry now erecting on an estate of the Marquis of Bute, Glamorganshire.2 This 1828 exhibit was well received in the nascent architectural press. A sketch of the drawing was published in the Mechanics' Magazine, accompanied by a brief notice written by Charles Davy ('Architect, &c'). 'The prefixed sketch', Davy wrote, was taken from a drawing exhibited this season at the Royal Academy, and recommended to general attention by the scientific name of MacCulloch. It displays an admirable adaptation of a peculiar style (the Egyptian) to a purpose for which it is, perhaps, best suited.The buildings represented in the prefixed engraving form only the eighth part of one side of a square, which is in the course of erection. The effect, when this square is completed, cannot be otherwise than magnificent. In the ornamental detail, the architect appears to have availed himself of the ruins of a temple in Dendyra, in Upper Egypt'.3