Page:An Encyclopædia of Cottage, Farm, and Villa Architecture and Furniture.djvu/961

 VILLAS IN VARIOUS STYLES. 937 class of regular features. As to the details of doorways, it will be observed, m general that their jamb mouldings are of a somewhat more complex character than those of windows, abounding in slender columns, based beads, ogees, and quarter and casement hollows ; which are ordinarily brought down, and made to terminate upon a splayed face at some distance from the ground, so as to produce a neat developement of their profiles ; or at other times, as economy or simplicity may require, the mouldings appear only in the arch of the doorway, being made to die away about the springing line against the jambs, which remain plain. The character of solidity which is necessary for effect in door jambs may appear to be occasionally attended with difficulty of treatment ; as, for example, in the instance of a door in a common lath and plaster partition. Hence, some modern iinitators have not scrupled to adopt, in cases of that kind, such incongruities as architraves on the Grecian or every-day principle; though it would be far better that the pointed style should be left unattempted, than affected in so barbarous a manner. The case which we have 1637 supposed is one which cer- 1636 <^mi!^V^^ ^^^^g'^^^ ■P nz: tainly admits of little de. coration, but that little will "have sufficient merit in 'being consistent, whether ^ "it be that of a simple % moulding, like fig. 1636, ^ or a mere splay, as in fig. 1637; the general rule 1638 being, that the mouldings of door or window jambs should commence with the surface of the wall or substance, and cut into the solid at an angle of not less than forty or more than sixty degrees, fig. 1638. Together with the varieties in doorways, we have also, in the style before us, varieties as numerous of , doors themselves. The simplest of these is the ledged V /' door, studded with nails, and frequently adorned with ^^ massive flourished hinges and strengthening irons. Some specimens there are of doors covered with con- tinuous patterns of wrought iron ; exhibiting, with con- siderable delicacy, successive ramifications of foliage and flower-work. Others, again, are framed in panels, the rails and styles being thick, narrow, and deeply moulded ; the mouldings very similar to those of muUions in windows, and the fillet, which usually forms the most prominent of them, being studded with nails. In folding doors of this kind, the outer meeting- style (as it is technically called) was usually finished with a little buttress, or colunmar bead, to hide the joint. A degree of additional richness was given to such doors by the introduction, in their panels, of compartments of foliage, or, very frequently, of Ion"- opened scrolls ; but the greatest display was that which arose from the use of tracery, with which doors were sometimes so elaborately ornamented as to equal in intricacy and beauty of design the most costly tabernacle-work. Here the same difficulty as before is presented to the ordinary modern imitator, when he finds himself obliged to attempt con- sistency under more economical circumstances, and with doors of a less substantial character than those in ancient use. Hence, under the notion that the sum of propriety consists in the imitation (no matter how distant) of arches and tracery, he plants on the panels of his " square-framed " door some thin lamina; of deal, just cut through into trefoils orquatrefoils, and considers his work as performed to admiration. Such an imitation, how- ever, would be far surpassed by a door framed quite plain and flush on both sides; for the latter exhibits at least nothing faulty, while the former is altogether a caricature. In a paneled door of thin sub- stance, the only kinds of moulding which can be used with correctness are the simple hollow, or the splay, as in fig. 1639; because these are the only mouldings out of which tracery can be formed, and all paneled work in Pointed Architecture is presumed to be susceptible of the finish of tracery, though it may not actually possess it. Projecting (or what are technically called bolection) moidd- ings are quite inadmissible in doors and framing of the style before us ; and we need scaiTcly .>^^^^^^? ■<^^^^ 1639 ^<:^y?^-^^s;^^xs.