DOI Artikel:
Ditchfield, Peter H.: Some old ceilings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0038
Some Old Ceilings
livery company of his own, with a royal charter
granted by King Henry VII. and confirmed by
subsequent sovereigns. There must have been
an immense number of these plasterers or par-
getters, inasmuch as during the latter part of the
sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries there was
scarcely a house of any pretension some rooms of
which were not adorned with beautiful ceilings
composed of modelled plaster work. Good artists
in plaster wrere in great request. Charles Williams,
the most famous of our native craftsmen, who had
studied the work of the foreigners in Italy, did some
of the wondrous work for Henry’s Palace of Nonsuch.
Sir John Thynne secured his services for his noble
house of Longleat, Wilts. The fame of his brilliant
workmanship travelled far, and soon Sir William
Cavendish and his lady, the renowned “ Bess of
Hardwick,” are begging Sir John to send to them
this cunning craftsman, who, they hear, had made
“dyvers pendants and other pretty things, and had
flowered the Hall at Longleat.”
Mr. William Millar, in his exhaustive and learned
work on “ Plastering,” to which I am greatly
indebted for much valuable information, traces the
growth of the style of the English art. After
studying the plans of the Italians introduced by
Henry VIII., the Englishman adopted as his first
idea of a good ceiling a system of interlacing
squares with radial ribs. Then with growing
boldness he made the ribs arched, and from their
junction hung a pendant. At first painting was
extensively used, and then in Elizabethan time
entirely abandoned. Then curvilinear, interlacing
and knotted forms appear, the ribs being embossed
with running ornaments, modelled or impressed.
A free adaptation of scroll work is also a charac-
teristic of this style. A glance at the illustrations
will show that evidently the Reading examples
belong to this period, when so many of our beauti-
ful English mansions were being erected, an age
that gave birth to Hatfield, Longleat, Audley End,
Chatsworth, Hardwick, Littlecote, and many others.
The earliest design is that shown in the
illustration at the top of page 18. It consists
of a series of squares and diamond-shaped
panels connected by ribs. The ribs spring from
the angles of the diamond-shaped panels and
join the squares at the points bisecting the sides.
The ribs are covered with pargetry work, but the
stamping is diversified; the diamond-shaped panels
being surrounded by ribs decorated with conven-
tional foliage differing from that which is used on
the ribs of the square panels. The centre of the
square panels is filled with a beautiful ornament of
scroll work having the Tudor rose in the centre.
The diamond-shaped panels have conventional
portraits of crowned heads; one is surrounded by
the legend Alexander the great, and the other
bears the name (as far as I am able to decipher it)
tibirius claves. The short ribs connecting the
squares and diamonds are all stamped with the
same pattern. In some of the ceilings another
ornament appears with good effect, viz., the Tudor
rose in a circular scroll which bears the motto of
the royal arms surmounted by a crown.
The designs shown in the illustrations at the foot
of page 18 and the foot of page 19 are more
elaborate; and if it were not that our friend
Alexander the Great still squints at us from the
corner of his eye, we might suppose these ceilings
to be later than the former ones. Gracefully
curved ribs interlace, the points of intersection
being decorated with leaves and pendants. In
the central spaces appears the Tudor rose, sur-
rounded by scroll work or girt with the motto of
the royal arms surmounted by a crown. A plain
moulded beam separates the compartments of one
ceiling. In the other example the ceiling is divided
into four compartments by two beams intersecting
at right angles ; and these are richly decorated
RUDYARD KIPLING BY JOSEPH SIMPSON
20
livery company of his own, with a royal charter
granted by King Henry VII. and confirmed by
subsequent sovereigns. There must have been
an immense number of these plasterers or par-
getters, inasmuch as during the latter part of the
sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries there was
scarcely a house of any pretension some rooms of
which were not adorned with beautiful ceilings
composed of modelled plaster work. Good artists
in plaster wrere in great request. Charles Williams,
the most famous of our native craftsmen, who had
studied the work of the foreigners in Italy, did some
of the wondrous work for Henry’s Palace of Nonsuch.
Sir John Thynne secured his services for his noble
house of Longleat, Wilts. The fame of his brilliant
workmanship travelled far, and soon Sir William
Cavendish and his lady, the renowned “ Bess of
Hardwick,” are begging Sir John to send to them
this cunning craftsman, who, they hear, had made
“dyvers pendants and other pretty things, and had
flowered the Hall at Longleat.”
Mr. William Millar, in his exhaustive and learned
work on “ Plastering,” to which I am greatly
indebted for much valuable information, traces the
growth of the style of the English art. After
studying the plans of the Italians introduced by
Henry VIII., the Englishman adopted as his first
idea of a good ceiling a system of interlacing
squares with radial ribs. Then with growing
boldness he made the ribs arched, and from their
junction hung a pendant. At first painting was
extensively used, and then in Elizabethan time
entirely abandoned. Then curvilinear, interlacing
and knotted forms appear, the ribs being embossed
with running ornaments, modelled or impressed.
A free adaptation of scroll work is also a charac-
teristic of this style. A glance at the illustrations
will show that evidently the Reading examples
belong to this period, when so many of our beauti-
ful English mansions were being erected, an age
that gave birth to Hatfield, Longleat, Audley End,
Chatsworth, Hardwick, Littlecote, and many others.
The earliest design is that shown in the
illustration at the top of page 18. It consists
of a series of squares and diamond-shaped
panels connected by ribs. The ribs spring from
the angles of the diamond-shaped panels and
join the squares at the points bisecting the sides.
The ribs are covered with pargetry work, but the
stamping is diversified; the diamond-shaped panels
being surrounded by ribs decorated with conven-
tional foliage differing from that which is used on
the ribs of the square panels. The centre of the
square panels is filled with a beautiful ornament of
scroll work having the Tudor rose in the centre.
The diamond-shaped panels have conventional
portraits of crowned heads; one is surrounded by
the legend Alexander the great, and the other
bears the name (as far as I am able to decipher it)
tibirius claves. The short ribs connecting the
squares and diamonds are all stamped with the
same pattern. In some of the ceilings another
ornament appears with good effect, viz., the Tudor
rose in a circular scroll which bears the motto of
the royal arms surmounted by a crown.
The designs shown in the illustrations at the foot
of page 18 and the foot of page 19 are more
elaborate; and if it were not that our friend
Alexander the Great still squints at us from the
corner of his eye, we might suppose these ceilings
to be later than the former ones. Gracefully
curved ribs interlace, the points of intersection
being decorated with leaves and pendants. In
the central spaces appears the Tudor rose, sur-
rounded by scroll work or girt with the motto of
the royal arms surmounted by a crown. A plain
moulded beam separates the compartments of one
ceiling. In the other example the ceiling is divided
into four compartments by two beams intersecting
at right angles ; and these are richly decorated
RUDYARD KIPLING BY JOSEPH SIMPSON
20