62 
House & Garden 
Attractive 
Home Lighting 
"^HESE char 
mmg fixtures are quite m the 
spirit of the Old Masters. Designed to 
harmonize with furniture and decora¬ 
tions of the Adam, Eleppelwhite, Sheraton 
and Eighteenth Century periods. 
No. 70 
5-Light Fixture 
Light Antique 
Bronze finish $33. 
West of Rockies 35.< 
Colonial Silver 
finish 39.1 
West of Rockies 42.. 
Prices do not include shades, bulbs or hanging, 
No. 700 
2-Light Bracket 
Light Antique 
Bronze finish 
West of Rockies 
Colonial Silver 
finish 
West of Rockies 
Write for name of MILLER 
distributor near you. 
Edward Miller & Company 
Established 1844 
S. Meriden, Conn. ^ 
mm, a • 
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Pargetry Inside the House 
(Continued from page 44) 
Parge, as the term was understood by 
the 16th and 17th Century English arti¬ 
sans, who wrought decorations as well 
as plain surfaces in it, was a material 
very similar to the parge or plaster 
now used for parging or coating the in¬ 
side of flues. It was an ordinary plaster 
composed of sand, lime and hair, to 
which mixture was added a certain 
amount of cow manure and road scrap¬ 
ings, which latter ingredients seemed to 
increase its tenacity and toughness, pos¬ 
sibly reduced its brittleness, and im¬ 
parted a creamy tone less trying to the 
eye than a glaring white. At times a 
good deal of grit was left in the mix¬ 
ture so that the texture was fairly 
coarse. According to an old workman, 
whom Mr. Lethaby quotes, the “old 
material was well washed, beaten, stirred, 
and tested so carefully, and for so long 
a time, that, when laid, it was as tough 
as leather.” 
How It Was Applied 
Parge was used for both exterior and 
interior work, and in each case served 
sometimes as a covering for plain sur¬ 
faces, sometimes as a vehicle for mod¬ 
elled decoration. The parge for exterior 
work was commonly more coarse than 
that for use indoors. In either case it 
was laid on in the usual manner with 
floats and the decoration wrought after¬ 
ward in situ, while the parge was still 
“green” and workable, being either mod¬ 
elled by the fingers and moulding tools 
of the plasterer, or else pressed with 
moulds or dies and finished off by hand. 
The modern reproductions of old 
parge work are very commonly made 
by taking impressions from the origi¬ 
nals, fashioning moulds therefrom, and 
then turning out fac-simile casts ad 
libitum. These casts are usually con¬ 
structed on a canvas foundation or 
backing, are thin and comparatively 
light in weight, and can be easily trans¬ 
ported, fixed in place, and the joints 
then smoothly plastered over. In the 
case of ceilings, the sections are cast in 
a size convenient to handle, fitted to¬ 
gether in place one by one, and the 
joints concealed as just indicated. This 
method has the advantage of ease and 
cleanliness in handling and also admits 
of unlimited commercial multiplication, 
so that the decorative resources of par- 
getry are brought within ready reach 
of any who may desire to avail them¬ 
selves of this form of embellishment. It 
has also the merits of accuracy in exe¬ 
cution and of archaeological fidelity to 
type. 
The examples of parge decoration 
shown in the accompanying illustrations 
were all cast in the manner just alluded 
to and were made by maimed ex-ser¬ 
vice men, but are to a great extent the 
result of modern design based upon the 
old traditions, the originals or moulds 
being made by an experienced crafts¬ 
man. 
The drawbacks attaching to cast parge 
are not serious, and in order to avoid 
or eliminate most of them it is only a 
case of being forewarned. There is the 
danger, of course, that the makers will 
not sufficiently heed the character of 
the mixture and will be tempted to use 
plaster of Paris instead of sticking 
strictly to the original formula, gnd will 
thus reproduce merely pattern without 
securing the quality of texture and col¬ 
or that imparted so much of the charm 
to the old work. This danger it is 
easy to dispose of. Nor can one ex¬ 
pect to find in cast work the same de¬ 
gree of spontaneity, the same engaging 
little irregularities and whimsicalities, 
the same ingenious adaptation to odd 
spaces, as in the parge work wrought 
in situ by the trained craftsman mod¬ 
elling as he goes, using only his fingers 
| and the simplest of graving tools. 
But this limitation is not at all seri¬ 
ous if those who employ the cast parge 
work show at all an inventive spirit in 
the varied combinations it is perfectly 
possible to devise. The chief pitfall to 
avoid is that previously noted—wrong 
mixture and the resulting unsatisfactory 
color and texture—for upon the mellow 
color and vigorous texture of parge de¬ 
pend not only its intrinsic charm, but 
also its fitness as a medium for ex¬ 
pressing a certain robust type of pat¬ 
tern, and its scope of satisfactory com¬ 
bination with other materials. 
There is no reason why parge work 
wrought in situ, with its straightfor¬ 
ward technique and its broad field for 
originality of design and individuality 
of interpretation, should not be revived 
as a recognized branch of craftsmanship, 
and hold a place of esteem quite as 
much as woodcarving, ironwork, or any 
of the other accessories of architecture, 
and that, too, on a basis sufficiently 
commercial to afford the necessary en¬ 
couragement to the craftsman. There 
is also ample scope for cast work from 
modern designs, as the illustrations 
show. 
The places in which decorative de¬ 
signs in parge may appropriately be 
used are the surface of the ceiling, in 
whole or in part; the upper wall sur¬ 
faces, as much or as little as may be 
desired; the cornice and frieze; chim¬ 
ney-pieces and overdoor spaces; lunettes 
at the ends of vaults, and the sides of 
window reveals—in short, almost any 
place where it is proper to employ a 
plaster surface. 
The possibilities of design suitable to 
expression in parge are limited only 
by the technique demanded by the na¬ 
ture of the material, and by the char¬ 
acter of the particular place to be 
adorned. Conventionalized and bold 
devices, simple rather than complicated, 
of fruit, foliage and flowers; scrolls, 
strapwork and tendrils; birds and beasts 
whose forms can be indicated in vigor¬ 
ous silhouette; vases and urns; geo¬ 
metrical patterns and ribbings; stars, 
fleurs-de-lys, shells, and other heraldic 
or symbolic motifs; cartouches, panels, 
and medallions—all of these and many 
others of kindred nature lend themselves 
to successful rendering in parge. 
Inherent Limitations 
What is the general character of parge 
decorations may be seen from the illus¬ 
trations, but emphasis, too, must be laid 
on the fact that, as parge when properly 
composed is a heavy, full-bodied and 
fairly coarse material, it is not a suit¬ 
able medium in which to attempt fine 
lines and sharply-incised, minute, crisp, 
or undercut details, such as are found 
in late 17th or 18th Century plaster- 
work, or in the delicate creations of the 
Adam period. If the essay be made to 
translate such motifs into parge the re¬ 
sult will net only be indistinct and lack 
emphatic definition, but will be flat, 
weak and unconvincing. Designs of this 
sort require more suavity of surface and 
substance than parge should have. 
If, on the other hand, the quality of 
the parge be altered and slicked down 
to admit of a technique foreign to its 
original nature, the very raison d’etre 
of pargetry is destroyed. Its use then 
becomes merely an affectation. One 
might as well have done with it at once 
and use plaster of Paris or compo in¬ 
stead, media much better for accurate 
finish and sharp detail. The material 
has its own inherent proprieties in the 
realm of design, proprieties which any¬ 
one with a feeling for texture in rela¬ 
tion to design will appreciate and re¬ 
spect. Much of the attraction of parge 
lies in the seemly combination of tex¬ 
ture, substance and pattern, and if this 
(Continued on page 66) 
