Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/297

 INTERIOR MNISHING OF COTTAGES. 273 .506 r have ten different variations of the concave line, the lightest and most agreeable feature of all cornices, particularly when viewed from below, and the characteristic of the Gotliic 507 cornice. Fig. 508 shows five sections of cornices having a convex curve for a leading 508 V^ V member. Fig. 509 shows modifications of the square, a leading feature in Grecian and Roman cornices. The square form, it thus appears, may be varied by approaches 509 to the parallelogram and to the rliomboid, and by altering its relative proportions with respect to the ceiling over it, and the surface of the wall beneath It. Composite cornices, fig. 510, may be formed by employing two or more of these five leading forms as 510 SJ E7 P"~^ F main features ; and cornices in particular styles of architecture are obviously of easy composition, from the lines and forms which belong to those styles. 567. The magnitude of a cornice ought always to be regulated by the size of the room in which it is introduced ; since the origin of the cornice of a column or wall was the edge of a plate of stone or timber, bedded on that column or wall, to receive with greater security, and give a better bearing to, what was to be placed upon it. A long narrow room does not require such a massive cornice as a square one covering the same surface, because there is less occasion for studying the security of the cross-beams or joists. 568. Plaster Ornaments on Ceilings have not hitherto been much introduced in cottages, on account of the expense. We scarcely think cornices with foliage or other cast ornaments desirable in plain cottages; but a rose or other flower, in plaster or composi- tion, might often be introduced, at very little expense, in the centre of the ceiling of a cottage parlour. There is scarcely any part of a house in which a single ornamental form produces so much effect as in the centre of a ceiling. Fortunately for the builders F F