March, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
169 
The furniture had its set place along the walls. Between the 
windows were half-round tables of inlaid or painted mahogany 
and other woods. They were called pier tables, as they stood 
against the “piers or masses of w r all between the window open¬ 
ings. Under the windows stood window stools. At other places 
against the wall were 
chairs and sofas. The 
dining-room contained a 
great sideboard, long 
and low, with wine- 
cooler and cellarette be¬ 
low, and knife-cases in 
the form of classic urns 
above. There seems oc¬ 
casionally to have been 
a center table in the 
dining-room. Other- 
wise all furniture was 
ranged along the walls. 
For cards, the pier- 
tables were brought out 
and set back to back in 
pairs to form circular 
tables. If they were 
made in the familiar 
manner, with double- 
hinged top and sliding 
The problem of the series — a window, door and fireplace 
major problems of any room 
leg, a single pier-table would form the complete circle. In the 
dining-room several rectangular pier-tables were brought to the 
center and placed side by side, with a half-round pier-table at 
each end. This formed the dining table, or “Set of Dining 
Tables,” as the term was then. After dinner, back to the wall 
they went. 
I here were no books, papers or odds and ends about; one or 
two vases or statuettes may have stood on the mantel; the books 
or papers were in the library. 
In short, the Adam room was 
the formal setting of a for¬ 
mal, dignified life; shocking 
at times their conversation 
might have been to our sense 
of modesty; but nevertheless 
the life was one of rigid con¬ 
vention and etiquette. 
Whether such a style is 
suited to our free-and-easv 
vv ays, I much misdoubt. 
\\ ould such a room seem ever 
right with chairs and tables 
not formally arranged? In a 
drawing-room, perhaps, or re¬ 
ception room or dining-room ? 
One could never lounge in 
such a room; but, then, he 
cannot lounge against a 
Sheraton or a Hepplewhite 
chair-back without breaking; 
it. Many an old lady still re¬ 
members being reproved for 
ning. Unfortunatly, “plasterwork” suggests immediately the 
coarse, heavy cornices and centerpieces of the Brownstone Age; 
“Stucco” suggests cheap, poor, sham construction. But it need 
not mean anything of the sort. The Greeks and Romans had the 
highest respect for the hard, white coating. The great Doric 
temples of Paestum and Agrigentum, the Ionic 
Temple at Bassae—all were of cut stone covered 
with plaster or stucco. The finish was so fine and 
hard that in Roman times slabs were cut from the 
walls and used as table-tops, and even as mirrors! 
\ itruvius describes it as often more beautiful and 
more durable than marble; but, as far as I know, 
where marble was used as the building material it 
was not covered with plaster. The temples men¬ 
tioned above were made of a rougher stone. 
I do not know why plaster should not be more 
used to-day. There is no lack of skilled Italian 
workmen of the highest order. It is not expen¬ 
sive ; compared to wood-carving, for instance, far 
less expensive; for one mould can make many 
ornaments. Adam’s decorations were cast in 
metal moulds. His predecessors, under Wren 
and Grinling Gibbons or their followers, had 
modeled directly in the soft lime-plaster on the 
ceiling (they seldom used it on the wall), but 
Adam introduced the modern way of casting. 
Gelatine moulds are used now. A full-sized 
model is made in clay of each type of ornament; the architect or 
decorator criticises the model, which is altered until satisfactory. 
Then the clay is coated with shellac and grease, the soft gelatine 
poured around it, which, when it dries, is lifted away from the 
clay and is used again and again as a mould for the plaster. 
The plaster casting is not always solid; unless very small, it is 
merely a thin crust of plaster of Paris reinforced with burlaps, 
following the outline of the mould and fastened in place on wall 
the 
Working details of the room to scale — much of the ornament omitted to simplify the drawing; all ornament and mouldings 
to be very fine and delicate in scale 
leaning against the back of a chair. 0 temporal O mores! 
Perhaps rocking on the hind legs of a chair will be considered 
perfectly good form before long. 
But to more certain matters. The Adam style, we have said, 
was primarily a style of plaster decoration. For this alone it 
should be worth our study, for we have made little use of deco¬ 
rative plaster in this country. A revival of it seems just begin- 
or ceiling with galvanized or copper wire. When very large it is 
sometimes braced with pieces of wood, as in the case of large 
cornices or the ceiling ribs of a dome. 
Such a construction was abhorrent to Adam and seemed, I 
suppose, unsuited to the material. He preferred the bas-relief 
of the Appian Tombs or of Pompeii, and he heeded Vitruvius, 
(Continued on page 205) 
