578

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE. Book K.

and copings of the walls wore destroyed, while the dressings of tlie windows, which were
of their terra-cotta, were perfectly sound and looking all tlie brighter for the burning.
Colours in Terra-cotta.
lOOSff. One advantage of the material is the delightful random variety of tone of
colour which is often to be obtained. The colour varies, giving an appearance of depth
to the worli and producing very pleasing effects, at times. This variety is generally
produced by the flash of the fire. The natural colours are buff, red, and blue, more or
loss intensified by the amount of heat to which thsy are subjected. Other colours can
be obtained by tlie admixture of foreign matter. The red terra-cotta of Ruabon is made
from a natural
red-coloured clay when burnt, very hard and non-pirous, with a clean,
smooth surface. The buff terra-cotta is a good and sound material, burns hard, and
keeps its colour. The pink terra-cotta, a new colour, is made from pure clays, and is
without any stain, very hard and durable. By a little additional cost and the operation
of a second firing, a soft dull glaze can be put on all terra-cotta bricks, mouldings, and
ornaments, so that fa9ades executed in this way could be washed cLan by water from a
fire engine.
19i)8i<. The aid of terra-cotta to polychromatic effect is capable of being developed in
a very elaborate manner. Variety may be obtained in the unglazed ware by what is
called
"
slipping,' or mixing two clays of different tones together in water to produce a
third or intermediate tone. In glased terra-cotta the material can be painted in a
great variety of colours, which are then fixed, and at the same time rend-red more
brilliant in effect. This ware is formed by throwing salt into the fire when the ware is
at a white heat, which is decomposed in the form of vapour, the soda suspended in it
incorporates itself with the surface of tlie ware, forming the glaze. Various mineral
colours are used, and the main colour is influenced by the fuel : the blue colour of the
ancient Rhenish productions is considered to be due to the use of woad. It has been
stated {ArchiEoIog a, iii. 112, and Proceedings, xi.) that at Gatacre Old House, near
Bridgenorth, "a glazing seems to have been applied to the stone of which the house is
built, by some unknowii process, after the building was finished, as it covered the joints
as well as the stones."
1908y. The intense heat to which glazed ware is subjected, and the consequent diffi-
culty of keeping its true shape, makes its use in this form very difficult. It is compara-
tively easy in all thrown ware, which, from its circular form, shrinks evenly in all its
psrts. The liability in all moulded work to warp and twist requires increasing care in
all its preparatory stages. That it is not impossible maj' be ascertained from the salt-
glazed stoneware in the vestibule of the "Palsgrave," opposite the Law Courts in the
Strand. This greater risk seems to necessitate that "its use must be in small pieces,
and in such placis where absolute flatness i>f surface is not indispensable; but under
these conditions it may be applied with admirable effect to heighten mouldings, or to
panel terra-cotta pilasters, or as bases and capitals, especially as shafts to ornamental
columns, and as oosses."
1908w. The paper read by the late J. M. Blashfield before the Northampton Architec-
tural Society, Sept. 6, 1859, on Ancient and Modern Pottery; and that by Mr. James
Doulton, read A^ril, 1886. at Carpenters' Hall, on Terra-cotta, have also been freely
quoted from in the above account.
Sect. III.
MASONBY.
1909. Masonry is the science of preparing and combining stones so as to tooth, indent,
or lie on each other, and become masses of walling and arching for the purposes of building.
The tools of the mason vary as the quality of the stone upon which they are to act. About
the metropolis the value of stone is considerable
;
and it is accordingly cut into slips and
scantlings by a saw moved horizontally backwards and forwards by a laboui-er. In those
parts where stone is abundant it is divided into smaller scantlings by means of wedges.
The principal tools of the mason are the mallet and chisels, the latter being formed of iron,
except at the steel end, and the cutting edge being the vertical angle. The end of the
chisel struck by the mallet is a small portion of a spherical surface, and projects on all
sides beyond the adjuining part or hand hold, which increases in magnitude towards the
middle of the tool, to the entering or cutting edge. The other tools of the mason are a
level, a plumb-rule, a square, a bevel, with straight and circular rules of divers sorts, for
trying surfaces in the progressive states of the work.
1910. In London, the tools used to work the face of a stone are, successively, the point,
the inch tool, the bjastcr (the operation of working with which is called boasting, as that