Victorian Ornamental Plasterwork Designs

Wilhelm Steinhauser

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780486164250
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Graphic Design

Handsome treasury of more than 320 elegant images for use — royalty-free — by today's artists, illustrators, and anyone interested in the interior decor of bygone days. Includes a wealth of floral and foliated sprays, frames and borders of intricate scrollwork, elaborate wall plaques, ceiling roses, cornices and friezes; and much more.

NOTE

In general, the decorative arts are set apart from the fine arts by possessing a distinctly functional rather than expressive or emotional purpose. Decorative plasterwork is one prime example of such an art form, consisting of coffers (recessed panels) for ceilings, medallions for light fixtures, dentils (or columns), and the like. Once the exclusive province of the very rich, these highly prized architectural features only became available to the masses with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Although they are primarily decorative, these moldings often serve a practical purpose: for example, cornices serve to neaten the joins between walls and ceilings, picture rails create a ledge from which to hang paintings, and so-called dado rails, positioned at an appropriate height to prevent chairs from being pushed back to mark a wall.

Beginning with the Georgian craftsman who pioneered the form, ornamental plasterwork was usually “run in place” at the site by applying wet plaster to the walls and ceiling, with the decoration being worked then and there by skilled plasterers. Historically, the plaster consisted of gypsum and lime, the ...