historic archive
Illustrations
For many companies, an order of a bandstand or fountain represented a significant order and when a prospective customer had been identified, further efforts would be made to secure the order. This sometimes took the form of colour visualisations of the proposed bandstand in a naturalistic setting. As this was a time before Computer Aided Design brought this type of marketing within the range of most companies, the supplied material could be a lavish affair.
The following image is an example of the sort of water colour illustrations supplied by the foundries, showing their products to the best advantage.
These watercolour productions are mini masterpieces in their own right and though unfortunately few remain, they are an important source of information about aspects of bandstand production such as colour schemes, as there was no photographic records showing the original appearance of many bandstands and fountains. The fact that such documents show often elaborate and whimsical decorative painting, this contradicts the often held view of the Victorian period as being dour and devoid of colour. In fact the period of uniformly black or green structures came later as the effort needed to maintain the original gaiety of the imposing landscape features became too much for many involved in the maintenance of parks.