PLASTER- WORK. 



7. IKIF/I: WITH iirxnxi, SCKXK. 



to dead uniform- 

 it y. Not being 

 burdened with the 

 thickness of three 

 coats of plaster, 

 lie would s t o ]&amp;gt; 

 \\hen he came to 

 the dressed stone 

 work of a window 

 with a pretty little 

 / i g / ag wrought 

 with his trowel 

 a pleasant finish 

 even without the 



decoration which usually followed. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries modelled plaster-work was 

 revived in France for interior decorations. Some of those wonderful chimney hoods, usually built of 

 stone, in the great chateaux, are framed up in timber and entirely covered inside and out \\itli plaster, 

 elaborate figure-work and other modelled ornament appearing on the front. About the same period 

 &quot; post and pan &quot; work, as it used to be called, began to be used in house-building. This work is now 

 commonly called &quot;half-timber construction.&quot; The pan or panel was the space between the posts or 

 timber framing, filled with a compost ol clay and straw, or sometimes with brick, and then plastered. 

 Over the greater part of England, when oak was plentiful, this form of building became very common, 

 and with it the modelling of the plaster was often practised. In cottage work it sometimes went 

 no further than a simple scratching or marking of the surface ; more frequently it was stamped 

 with wooden moulds. But it also developed into marvellously ornate and beautifully-modelled 

 plaster, as in the famous examples at Wyvenhoe, Maidstone. Canterbury and elsewhere. 



In the seventeenth centurv there was a Iresh 



^^^^^^~t^~~~ ^^B^H outburst ol decoration in plaster in this country, ami 



very beautiful work was done on irie/e- and ceilings, 



/&quot;^ / examples ol which are very nnnierou-. It would 



% jg^ff . appear that the introduction in the sixteenth century of 



Italian workmen had something to do with this revival 



^/ LoB Certainly if we set aside the Romans themselves. 



^r Tii^fi ^ there were never greater master- of plaster-work than 



the Italians, who wrought in what was railed &quot; stucco 

 duro.&quot; I heir material was so hard and well tempered 

 as to withstand the effects of weather for centuries. 

 Old Hardwick Hall was unroofed when the- new house 

 was built at the end of the sixteenth century ; but 

 even to this day much of the figure-work on the 

 stucco frie/.es shows an undamaged surface. The 

 English workman appears to have quickly absorbed 

 what was useful to him in the Italian methods, and soon 

 blossomed out on lines of his own which marked the 

 seventeenth century as the high-water level o| plaster- 

 work in this country. In the eighteenth century the 

 vigour of the movement gradually expended itself. 

 During tin Adams period it passed through a phase 

 quite marvellous and admirable of its kind, based 

 consciously and deliberately on the Roman plaster- 

 work of the time of Pompeii. Only if viewed in com 

 parison with the freer and more robust Elizabethan 

 work can the plaster-work evolved by the brothers 

 Adam be called decadent. When compared with the 

 nemesis that followed in the nineteenth century it 

 stands out as singularly refined, delicate and satisfying 

 workmanship. A side issue of the plasterer s craft, 

 known as &quot; compo &quot; ornament, developed at this 

 period. It is a tough, leathery material, which was 

 frequently applied to wood in place of carving. This 

 form of ornament, perfectly straightforward in itself, 



8. BASED ON EARLY WORK BUT NOT COPIED. 



