Art of moulding Carving in Wood . 4<1? 
No. 82. 
The Art of moulding Carving in Wood . J3y Lenor 
manDj Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Central 
School of the Department of Tarn 
INGENIOUS or curious men are often thwarted in 
the execution of their projects by the difficulty of finding 
in the places where they reside workmen capable of as- 
sisting them in the articles for which they may have oc- 
casion. Small towns in particular furnish only indif- 
ferent workmen ; and besides, they do not contain artists 
of every kind. Good carvers, for example, reside only 
in large towns ; and these even are not very common. I 
had seen plaisterers supply the want of good modellers 
by incrusting in their decorations plaister moulded on ex- 
cellent models. I therefore conceived that it might be 
possible to mould carving in wood, to be afterwards ap- 
plied to cabinet-makers 7 work. This idea I did not at 
first carry into execution ; but two or three years after, 
having occasion for some pieces of carving, I invented a 
new art,f as will be seen by what follows. Necessity 
rendered me industrious, and I at length accomplished 
my object. 
Wishing to obtain a case for a pendulum clock I had 
constructed, I drew a plan of it; and presented it to an 
excellent cabinet-maker in the small town in which I re- 
sided. He would undertake only the plain work, and 
referred me for the execution of the carving to Toulouse 
or Bourdeaux. I was sensible how difficult it would be 
to get the carving of the different pieces executed at a 
distance, and particularly within the required time ; and 
* Tilloch, vol. 16, p. 24 7. From the Biblioth'equt Physico-Economique , June 
1803. 
t This art is not new ; but the experiments of file author may furnish useful 
hints to artists . — T xllogh* 
Vol. ii, 3 f 
