Plasterwork is
one of the most ancient of handicrafts employed in connection with
building operations, the earliest evidence showing
that the dwellings of primitive man were erected in a simple fashion
with sticks and plastered with mud.
Soon a more lasting and sightly
material was found and employed to take the place of mud or slime,
and that perfection in the compounding of plastering materials
was approached at a very remote period is made evident by the fact
that some of the earliest plastering which has remained undisturbed
excels in its scientific composition that which we use at the present
day. |
The pyramids in Egypt contain plasterwork
executed at least four thousand years ago, probably much earlier,
and yet existing, hard and durable, at the present time.
From recent discoveries it has been ascertained that the principal tools of the
plasterer of that time were practically identical in design, shape and purpose
with those used to day.
For their finest work, the Egyptians used a plaster made from calcined gypsum
just like plaster of Paris of the present time, and their methods of plastering
on reeds resemble in every way our lath, plaster, float and set work. Hair was
introduced to strengthen the stuff, and the whole finished somewhat under an
inch thick.
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| Mayan plasterwork > |
Very early in the history of Greek architecture we
find the use of plaster of a fine white lime stucco, such has been
found at Mycenae. The art had reached perfection in Greece more than
five centuries before Christ, and plaster was frequently used to
cover temples externally and internally, in some cases even where
the building was of marble. It formed a splendid ground for decorative
painting, which at this period of Grecian history had reached a very
high degree of beauty.
The temple of Apollo at Bassae, built of yellow sandstone about 470 BC, is an
excellent example. Pavements of thick, hard plaster, stained with various pigments,
were commonly laid in Greek temples.
The Roman architect Vitruvius, in his book on architecture written about 16 BC,
gives detailed information concerning the methods of making plaster and the manner
of using it. "The lime used for stucco," he writes, "should be
of the best quality and tempered a long time before it is wanted for use.
The Greeks, besides making their stuccowork hard with thin coats of marble-dust
plaster polished with chalk or marble, caused the plaster when being mixed to
be beaten with wooden staves by a great number of men.
Some persons cutting slabs of such plaster from ancient walls use them for tables
and mirrors." Pliny the Elder tells us that, "No builder should employ
lime which had not been slaked at least three years," and that, "The
Greeks used to grind their lime very fine and beat it with pestles of wood."
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In England the walls of large houses and mansions were formerly
plastered above the wainscoting and coloured, while the ornamented
plaster ceilings of the time of Henry VIII, Elizabeth and James
I, are still the admiration of lovers of the art.
Still earlier specimens of the plasterer's skill are extant in the pargeted and
ornamented fronts of half-timbered houses. With regard to the smaller buildings,
comprising small dwelling houses and cottages, the general application of plaster
is of comparatively late date; for wainscoted walls and boarded ceilings or naked
joists alone are frequently found in houses of not more than a century old both
in England and on the Continent. |
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| Plastering tools unearthed at Mississippian burial
site near Nashville, Tennessee. |
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