Studio: international art (35.1905)

Some Old Ceilings

This pargetting was used
on the exterior surface of
the walls, as well as for
the interior decorations of
buildings. The construc-
tion of the old half-timbered
houses seemed to invite the
plasterer and pargetter’s art.
These buildings presented
a series of plastered panels
which cried aloud for
decoration. And when
Henry VIII. invited to
this country Italian plas-
terers who had been adorn-
ing the palaces of Venice
and Padua, Florence and
Genoa, they fell upon these
inviting panels and covered
them with heraldic devices,
figures, heads, foliage, and
old ceiling from walsingham house, reading other designs. The Italians

taught the English folk
the secret of their skill,

excellence of their execution. They have stood for
three centuries and a half without a crack, much
more without falling. Modern ceilings, as ordi-
narily contracted for, endure about four years, then
develop cracks, and down they fall. The cause of
this is that modern builders do not introduce the
same amount of hair into
the plaster, and are content
to use for an entire ceiling
that which would scarcely
have sufficed for a single
square foot of an ancient
one. These ceilings at
Reading have weathered
many a storm and wit-
nessed many changes; they
are remarkable for the
beauty of their design and
their fine workmanship. It
is fitting that some perma-
nent description should be
recorded of their perfec-
tions.

They are evidently parget
work. Pargetting, it may
be stated, is plaster work
decorated by means of
stamps, the soft plaster
being stamped or pressed

to form repeated designs. old ceiling from walsingham house, reading

but the English plasterer did not slavishly copy
the design of the Italian artist. After his fashion
he developed the art on his own lines and in
accordance with native sentiment, evolving his
own plans and schemes and methods. He was
a very important person, and had in London a

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