Article: Architectural embellishments.(plastering)(Brief Article)

In his engagingly written and highly informative volume The National Trust Book of the English House Interior (Viking Penguin in association with the National Trust, New York, 1990), Geoffrey Beard relates that "plaster as a decorative medium has a long existence, but in England it only developed from the reign of Henry VII," who in 1501 granted a charter to the Worshipful Company of Plasterers in London. Made from lime or gypsum, sand, and water, plaster could be given strength by adding chopped ox hair; or when finer work was required, the hair of a goat or kid. The mixture was then pressed into greased iron molds, into which the decorative pattern had been cast. Once ...

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