Cornices & Original Paint Colours

[Nigel Watts]

The ground floor plaster (not in those pics) is decorated with little balls of plaster - they seem almost perfectly spherical. He is still trying to figure out how they were made without silicone moulds.

Before silicone gelatine was used, but this seems only to have been introduced in about 1850 (according to Millar). Before that moulds were probably made of plaster, oiled or greased to prevent them sticking. A sphere could be cast in a two part rigid plaster mould.

It took me a while to work out how to cast the pierced sections in this (my first floor cornice):

In the end I figured out I had to make a two part silicone mould. The little line of florets down the middle had to be cast separately and stuck on.

 

[Penners]

Is that the same great uncle who was also Neville Coghill?

No, NC was my grandfather's cousin. He was from the brighter side of the family.

 

[Penners]

It took me a while to work out how to cast the pierced sections in... my first floor cornice)...In the end I figured out I had to make a two part silicone mould. The little line of florets down the middle had to be cast separately and stuck on.

Nigel, I'm agog. I preume you must be at least 80 years old, because that job alone must have taken 40 years.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It really is incredible- such patience, and a great end result. How do you make a two part silicone mould? Surely you need a mould to make a mould? It's always baffled me.

 

[JoceAndChris]

I don't know if this is cornice. It's in our porch and loo, and there are lots of remnants of it in the shed.

Was much Georgian cornice made of wood? Anyway I wish I had that fancy plaster stuff!

 

[Nigel Watts]

I took down a section and copied it. A very helpful chap at Tiranti's in Warren Streen, suppliers of sculptors' tools and materials, told me how to do it.

I borrowed some Lego from my son to make a box, built up a layer of modelling clay, put the removed section on top then poured in the liquid silicone. When set, turned the whole thing upside down, removed clay, and poured in second batch of liquid silicone. When set I had a nice two part mould.

I only had to make a dozen or so six inch sections. It was not that hard to do once I knew how.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Amazing! And very cool that it invovled Lego!

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I don't know if this is cornice. It's in our porch and loo, and there are lots of remnants of it in the shed.

Was much Georgian cornice made of wood? Anyway I wish I had that fancy plaster stuff!

Wooden cornices aren't desperately unusual (but they would have been painted)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Thanks Gareth! They'll be painted again.

 

[Penners]

Would they be called dentils?

 

[JoceAndChris]

Because similar to teeth?

 

[Moo]

There's a chap called Patrick Baty who runs a shop in Chelsea called Papers and Paints (not the one with lots of branches) and can bore for England on the subject of paints and paint colours. Well worth a visit. His colour charts are not free, but they contain generous splodges of real paint. His website is: http://www.papers-paints.co.uk/consultancy.htm

Also worth looking at is Dan Cruickshank's riveting book "Life in the Georgian City". The Paint chapter runs from page 180 to p189.*

* interestingly, in the mid 1780s window joinery was painted white, but by the early C19 "dark brown and grained sashes were very much in favour."

 

[Penners]

Because similar to teeth?

Just so.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Because similar to teeth?

Just so.

Mmmn, if they were dentils, that would be right, but the ones in Joce's pics are mutules.

 

[JoceAndChris]

"mutule -a projecting rectangular block or bracket situated above the triglyph and beneath the corona of a Doric cornice." thefreedictionary.com

Thank you for your correction, Mr Hughes. And I wonder if it was popular to have mutules all round the exterior of the house to support the guttering, as I have? (though currently a copy, in chestnut, of the original oak ones- of which we have some fragments)

I also find it bizarre that they would muck about making all these mutules and then be content with the following cornice in the principle rooms! Perhaps they ran out of cash.

 

[JoceAndChris]

There's a chap called Patrick Baty who runs a shop in Chelsea called Papers and Paints (not the one with lots of branches) and can bore for England on the subject of paints and paint colours.

He really sounds like my kind of guy. Hmm, when's the next train to Chelsea?

Thanks Moo!
xx

 

[Moo]

- and do try to get hold of a copy of the Cruickshank book. It's out of print, and second-hand copies seem to cost the earth, but your local library may be able to find you a copy.

xx M

 

[JoceAndChris]

Between £90 and £270- I see what you mean.

But I'll check the libraries round here, and I'm always trawling round 2nd hand bookshops anyway, thanks Moo!