His major commissions include gates and railings for
Hampton Court Palace, where he worked between 1689 and 1700; he was paid £2,160 2s 0.25d for the wrought iron screens at the river end of the "Privy Garden" at Hampton Court. He also is known to have worked at
Kensington Palace. He produced the screens and grilles of
St Paul's Cathedral for Sir
Christopher Wren. Tijou's work shown at St. Paul's Cathedral is different from his usual work because it does not contain the repoussé trademark he is known for. Instead it focuses on scrollwork and harmony to the building rather than setting the gate as emphasis no matter the architecture attached to it. He also worked at country houses such as
Easton Neston,
Burghley and
Chatsworth. At Chatsworth his surviving works include the balustrade of the upper flight of the grand staircase and the set of gates known as the Golden Gates, which were moved to their present location at the north entrance to the park in the 19th century. Tijou elevated
blacksmithing to an art with his lavish
Baroque sheet metal overlay on iron structures. To achieve this style of artistry, sheet metal is hammered from the rear of the plate to create form and then used to cover fire welds on foundational iron structures such as gates, hinges, fence work or wall deco pieces. Tijou used wrought iron because of the workability it provided. He was able to use charcoal wrought iron in sheets for his portion of repoussé work. The use of wrought iron allowed Tijou to work in more three dimensionality than seen before in other iron work. Many works by Tijou were
gilded. It is possible that a portrait of Jean Tijou appears at the bottom of the title page of a book entitled
A New Book of Drawings Invented and Designed [sic] by John Tijou, in 1693. The plates were engraved by
Michiel van der Gucht. The book or album contains 20 designs, and was the first book of ironwork designs published in England. The book had high quality of illustration which helped mark it as his own and set it apart from other books on iron work. Many other catalogues followed this book throughout the Victorian Era. == Influence on Ironwork ==