A to Z of Period Properties

[Gareth Hughes]

Or, indeed, a GREENHOUSE, so useful for a few tomatoesView attachment 1
The Gazebo and Greenhouse might also be accompanied by a GROTTO

 

[Gareth Hughes]

When making a GARDEN (see above), Alexander Pope advised that regard should be had to the GENIUS LOCI

Consult the genius of the place in all;
That tells the waters or to rise, or fall;
Or helps th' ambitious hill the heav'ns to scale,
Or scoops in circling theatres the vale;
Calls in the country, catches opening glades,
Joins willing woods, and varies shades from shades,
Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending lines;
Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

 

[JoceAndChris]

How very elegant. Good old A.P. I could do with a few genii here to help with all the brambles and mud.

Nice piles above, where are they?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Gothic are: Fonthill Abbey (James Wyatt for William Beckford c.1795 until he got bored with it, now almost all gone having suffered a slight error of calculation in terms of the amount of structure required to hold the 280' tower up), The "Museum" at Enville in Staffordshire by Sanderson Miller, and Alton Castle in Staffordshire by AWN Pugin.
The Garden ones are: Gazebo - Painswick "Rococco Garden" in Gloucestershire, c.1740, Gates - The Lloyd George Memorial, Llanystumdwy, Caernarfonshire, c.1945 by Clough Williams-Ellis, Goddess - statue of ?Minerva? on the bridge at Iford in Wiltshire, site of Harold Peto's amazing Italianate garden of c.1900.
Greenhouse - Enville again, early nineteenth century, Grotto - Alton Towers, c.1820.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Lovely, thankyou. All added to the wish list of places to go on PPUK outings, with picnics, lashings of ginger beer, and straw boaters of course.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It won't be picnic weather, but this is only a few hundred yards from the site of next Wednesday's "escape from the Christmas shopping" get together.

 

[JoceAndChris]

How excited I am! That looks so beautiful. And will we get to meet the extraordinary HUGHES, GARETH (see HUGHES, GARETH), or do you plan on maintaining your enigmatic omniscience a while longer?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Now, why do you think I'm trying to keep the "G" entries going for as long as possible before you start on "H"? :?
I've got GUILLOCHE and GILPIN, REV. WILLIAM to go, at least...

 

[Jon Maine]

Gargoyle for spouting, suprised we dont have a poster on this forum using tat name!!

Gresham College which includes Roman, 14th, 16th and 18th century work

Groin vault or double barrelled vault/arch

* gable - a triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof
* Gablets - triangular terminations to buttresses, much in use in the Early English and Decorated periods, after which the buttresses generally terminated in pinnacles. The Early English gablets are generally plain, and very sharp in pitch. In the Decorated period they are often enriched with paneling and crockets. They are sometimes finished with small crosses, but more often with finials.

* Gadrooning - carved or curved molding used in architecture and interior design as decorative motif, often consisting of flutes which are inverted and curved. Popular during the Italian Renaissance.

* Gambrel - a symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side

* Garretting, properly Galletting - the process in which the gallets or small splinters of stone are inserted in the joints of coarse masonry to protect the mortar joints. They are stuck in while the mortar is wet.

* Geison - (Greek: γεῖσον - often interchangeable with cornice) the part of the entablature that projects outward from the top of the frieze in the Doric order and from the top of the frieze course of the Ionic and Corinthan orders; it forms the outer edge of the roof on the sides of a structure with a sloped roof.


Come on you lot are not trying...............

 

[Nigel Watts]

PPUK outings, with picnics, lashings of ginger beer

I hope we might occasionally manage something a little stronger; a nicely chilled bottle (or two) of Moselle one of the better English wines perhaps?

 

[JoceAndChris]

I hope we might occasionally manage something a little stronger; a nicely chilled bottle (or two) of Moselle one of the better English wines perhaps?

Now you're talking!

Come on you lot are not trying...............

It reminds me of when I watch my tiger cat battle a moth. The parties are not evenly matched. How can we top gadrooning or geisons?

GNOME, GARDEN: If your funds cannot stretch to a gazebo, greenhouse, Greek God statuary, gorgeous gates or even gargoyles, why not try a few gnomes?

Garden gnomes originated in Germany in the 19th century and drew on legends of gnomes as willing, secretive, nocturnal helpers for mundane tasks. They were first introduced to the United Kingdom in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham, when he brought 21 terracotta figures back from a trip to Germany and placed them as ornaments in the gardens of his home, Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Only one of the original batch of gnomes survives: Lampy, as he is known, is on display at Lamport Hall, and is insured for one million pounds.

Although gnomes have been banned by the snooty folk at the Chelsea Flower Show, their popularity and global appeal is evinced by the act of "gnoming" (stealing gnomes and returning them to the wild), a prank so prevalent that there are even societies and organisations (France's "Front de Liberation des Nains de Jardins" and Italy's "MALAG) for its propagation.

Gnomes have even been on trips around the world, returning postcards to their owners from multiple exciting destinations.

 

[Nigel Watts]

GNOMON: The part of the sundial which casts the shadow. Most sundials are inaccuarte because they record siderial time whereas clocks work on mean time (solar days are not constant throughout the year because of the eliptical orbit of the earth). However this problem can be overcome with an analemmic shaped gnomon.

 

[JoceAndChris]

:shock:

(ANALEMMA: A graduated scale in the shape of a figure eight, indicating the sun's declination and the equation of time for every day of the year and usually found on sundials and globes.)

GIESTSELE: If you fancy an Anglo-Saxon style type folly/extra accommodation for Christmas in your garden, why not construct a GIESTSELE (guest hall)? You could slap it up in no time out of mud and reed and gátehǽr (goat hair) and I don't think they bothered with windows either. No need to bother with a gangtún, (latrine), just give them a pot.

 

[Nigel Watts]

GIRANDOLE: Term often used to describe a mirror with attached candelarbrum:

 

[Nigel Watts]

GYRATORY: A term which seems to have been applied to complicated traffic roundabouts - a kind of structure which may one day get listed status? The one at Hanger Lane in London, where the A40 joins the North Circular, is a particularly terrifying example which rather surprisingly has an enthusiastic fan (see link). This extract gives the flavour:


"The A40 might be my favourite London highway - but the Hanger Lane Gyratory is my all-time favourite traffic junction. Yep - much more exciting than, say, Vauxhall Cross, Staples Corner or the Westferry Road Roundabout - believe me - I’ve done’em all. At one point on this roundabout - you have seven lanes! I don’t believe that there’s any other road in London that has this many lanes to choose from."


http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000250.html

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, that Hanger Lane Gyratory. That's the reason I didn't learn to drive until this year! Nice mirrors too, not completely dissimilar to one I've just bought - though yours is nicer.

GESSO: A preparation of plaster of Paris and glue used as a base for low relief or as a surface for painting.

GEESE: A lovely addition to a period property, geese make excellent guard pets as well as table birds. Reeling at having just committed to a £55 goose (the butcher told me the price after I'd gone through all the details of the order - are geese really this expensive?) for Christmas, I really must organise some living geese for next year.

GRECIAN: the influence on architecture, art and decoration and thought from Ancient Greece cannot be underestimated. I suppose the start of it was the Renaissance? And so we have temples, gods and goddesses, PALLADIAN style, and this lovely poem which really sums it all up:

" A flow'ry tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy? "

 

[Nigel Watts]

Nice mirrors too, not completely dissimilar to one I've just bought - though yours is nicer.

I had yours in mind when I selected the image from the Christies sold lot archive (a great source incidentally, as is that of Sotheby's, Bonhams and other leading auctioneers). They were not bought by me!

I have a long standing ambition to carve a rococo mirror frame, but the project has been in abeyance for many years:

This pic was taken in my basement when it was a separate flat and I had the run of it for my workshop. Oh to have a spacious worksop again.....

 

[Nigel Watts]

GESSO: A preparation of plaster of Paris and glue

The only time I made some gesso I used rabbit skin glue and whiting (powdered chalk). I think plaster of Paris would be hard to work with because it would set too fast, although the glue would slow down the set somewhat.

Gesso grounds are frequently used for GILDING. Red bole is usually applied on top (to give a rich colour) followed by GOLD SIZE then GOLD LEAF (for OIL GILDING) or just gold leaf (for WATER GILDING). Water gilding is usually burnished afterwards, often with a smooth piece of agate, and gives the brighter finish, but is more difficult to do.

I read all this up when planning my rococo mirror project, but have not yet tried it.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

GNOMON: The part of the sundial which casts the shadow. Most sundials are inaccuarte because they record siderial time whereas clocks work on mean time (solar days are not constant throughout the year because of the eliptical orbit of the earth). However this problem can be overcome with an analemmic shaped gnomon.

Would that also ensure that this is accurate? (I really, really want one when I have a suitable garden)

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol: :lol: :lol: http://www.cannon-mania.com/sundials.htm

I hadn't seen them before! A perfect Christmas present for all the men in my life!

(Fab mirror project Nigel! Looks tricky though!)