Philip Simmons Collection

The Egret is shown in so many of Philip Simmons’s designs, but most notably in the gate he designed and made for the South Carolina State Museum and again for the Smithsonian Museum.

Invited by the Smithsonian Institution in the summer of 1976, Philip Simmons demonstrated his blacksmithing talents at the Festival of American Folklife in Washington, DC. Philip designed and constructed the “Star and Fish Gate” on the mall near Lincoln Memorial. He intended to display a wide range of forms in order to explain to the festival visitors what he did in Charleston. The model for this charm was hand wrought in the style of Philip Simmons.

The double heart gate is located at the Menotti Street entrance to the Philip Simmons Garden at St. John’s Reformed Episcopal Church. Simmons designed all of the wrought iron work at this location, and his cousin and nephew provided the fabrication at the workshop he inherited from his mentor, Peter Simmons.

Found along the front stairway leading to “Eagle Nest” at 45 Meeting Street, the “Longest Curl” is a wrought iron curving stair rail complete with an elaborate newel post. Made from thick bar stock, the curl makes two full turns and is topped by a faceted finial.

Commissioned in 1985 for the South Carolina State Museum, “The Philip Simmons Gate” displays a pair of egrets and a palmetto tree, the state tree of South Carolina. Stimulated by the publicity surrounding the installation of the gate, the state legislature awarded Philip Simmons the South Carolina Folk Heritage Award.

This gate commemorates Gadsden’s design of the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag used in the Revolutionary War. This is the first work in the long tradition of ornamental wrought iron in Charleston to feature a sculpture of an animal.

These charm bracelets bring some of Philip Simmons most wonderful work together into one beautiful piece.