SCENE ON THE STREET : Making Their Point With Wrought Iron

Perhaps a Spanish ironworker, centuries ago, was staring at a piece of lace. Then he flexed his muscles and crocheted himself a fence.

Mira, what hath man wrought! The style, forged in Catalonia, quickly spread, and frothy, ferrous furbelows have constituted numerous gates, fences, grilles and balconies ever since.

Typical examples, in San Marino, Arcadia, Duarte, Azusa, Glendora and Pomona, include the elegant, the exuberantly nostalgic (hey, it’s the wheel thing in that fence!) and the stern.

Perhaps the designer of those rows of spikes had a bad experience with a wedding cake and didn’t want to get overwrought.