Pair of cast-iron wall plaques in the form of a lattice basket with leaf decoration, rope, and tassel handles, painted black. The patent date 1868 is stamped on back of holders. Naturalism, the realistic reproduction of the beauties of nature, was a popular style in the Victorian era. Though it appears as early as the 1840’s in America, naturalistic designs continued to the 1900s. This was in part due to the influence of the natural sciences, and interest in nature and gardening, which spread through the upper and middle classes in the nineteenth century. Naturalistic designs incorporated floral, foliate, fruit, vegetal, and animal forms into furnishings and decorative objects for the home and garden. Popular subjects included grapes, cornstalks, ferns, Solomon seal or laurel leaf, passion flowers, lilies of the valley, morning glories, oak leaves, acorns, vines, and roses.
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The Victorian love of ornament and display led to wall-mounted display pieces becoming a popular feature of many Victorian homes. Both in and out of doors, objects and plants were mounted on brackets, which were usually made from metals, such as cast iron, aluminum, or zinc; wood; ceramic; glass; or plaster. They were frequently designed with decorative motifs or in elaborate shapes, and often employed motifs from popular revival styles of the time or in rustic interpretations of objects from nature. One popular type of bracket was the wall pockets, which are flat backed and create a space that could act as a small vase or pot. They usually held fresh-cut or dried flowers, vines, or root plants. Ivy was a popular choice for wall pockets, and the vines would be trained to highlight the architecture or the objects hung on the wall. This appealed to the Victorian love of nature and was a way to bring the outside in. Planted wall pockets often served as a small piece of nature in the city. They appeared in many Victorian homes and reached the height of their popularity between World War I and II in the United States.
