HOUSE AND GARDEN 
36 
January, 1911 
point or even short 
of it. Probably 
few people know 
that each of these 
styles or orders 
have their charac¬ 
teristic type of cor¬ 
nice and that the 
trained observer 
can distinguish as 
readily the differ¬ 
ence between a 
Doric and a Corin¬ 
thian cornice as be¬ 
tween the capitals 
of the same styles. 
In the Colonial, 
however, the dis¬ 
tinction is some¬ 
times lost, or often 
certain characteris¬ 
tic motives of one 
style are intro¬ 
duced quite naively 
in a strange place. 
However, this was 
almost invariably 
done with such ex¬ 
cellent judgment and good taste that it rather enhances than de¬ 
tracts from the effect. An interesting example of this is the 
doorway where the fluted pilaster is very good Doric and the 
cornice is much more Corinthian than anything else. But where 
the scale is perfectly preserved the effect is much more charming 
than if the order were more nearly correct. 
The use of the modillion blocks in the cornice in conjunction 
with the Doric order is very characteristic of Colonial work. In 
fact, it was a favorite motive and was used 
with freedom and great frequency, and with 
any of the orders or where no order was used. 
Now the ornament naturally falls into 
two divisions — the decoration given by mold¬ 
ings, and free or applied ornament. In both 
classes the motives in common use are com¬ 
paratively few. In the former class is the 
egg-and-dart, the dentil course and the so- 
called lamb's-tongue ornament, with its vari¬ 
ations. Each of these forms were subject to 
Copyright, Boston Photo News Co. 
A beautifully proportioned New England 
doorway in which the slender Corinthian 
columns are used. The row of balls just 
over the frieze is a typical American 
molding 
an almost endless 
variation, but the 
motive is not diffi¬ 
cult to trace even 
when the original 
form is almost lost. 
In the moldings be¬ 
low the projecting 
part of a cornice or 
mantel - shelf the 
dentil is most fre¬ 
quently found, and 
when the egg-and- 
dart is use d, it 
should be above 
the dentils, with 
the ‘‘lamb’s- 
tongue’’ below 
them. The dentils 
are easily recog¬ 
nized by their re¬ 
semblance to a row 
of teeth with spaces 
between; hence the 
name. This motive 
was sometimes de¬ 
veloped by the Co¬ 
lonial designer so 
that little remains but the vertical feeling and the general form of 
the molding, as may be seen in one of the illustrations. 
The egg-and-dart is to be distinguished by the egg shapes sur¬ 
rounded by a sort of shell and separated by darts or arrows 
pointing down. The shell form is often joined at the top and 
the arrow is not always clearly distinguishable, but the basic idea 
is there and may be readily known. This is a form of ornament 
that is adapted — perhaps better than any other—to a molding 
which is, in profile, approximately a quarter 
of a circle. That is to say, a molding that 
acts as a bracket or supporting member for 
a still more projecting mass above. 
The lamb’s-tongue ornament is used when 
the molding is a reversed curve in profile, 
with the convex above and the concave be¬ 
low. In its simplest form it consists of a 
series of flat leaves or tongues, separated by 
a dart somewhat like the dart of the egg-and- 
dart. The dart persists in all the variations, 
Copyright, Boston Photo News Co. 
A doorway similar in proportions to the 
adjoining one, but using the Ionic order. 
The guttae below the frieze are properly 
found only in the Doric order below the 
triglyphs 
The use of reeding (shown surrounding 
soapstone facing) was common in 
Colonial detail, but it has no precedent 
cepting in Egyptian columns 
the The Greek Doric order. There are 
the no bases to the columns, and the 
ex- triglyphs are supposed to repre¬ 
sent timber ends 
The use of baskets of fruit and other applied 
ornament in frieze panels over the pilasters 
or columns was a characteristic of Colonial 
doorways and mantels 
