Londinium, Architecture and the CraftsLethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
History
Londinium, Architecture and the Crafts
Lethaby, W. R. (William Richard)
England -- Antiquities, Roman; London (England) -- Antiquities, Roman; Romans -- England -- London
_Dadoes._—A sketch at the Society of Antiquaries shows the walls of a
plain little room found in Leadenhall Street, which had pink margin
bands along the skirting and up the angles, and another pink stripe
about 2 ft. above the floor. The general surface was white.
[Illustration:
FIG. 111.
]
[Illustration:
FIG. 112.
]
Other dadoes seem to have been divided up into small plain “panels” or
diagonal lattices. At Silchester there is a fragment with a green band,
about 1¼ in. wide, crossing another at right angles, having a red line
parallel with the green band with a “blob” at the angle. This seems to
have represented a dado treatment (Fig. 112). At the British Museum are
pieces of plaster painted with narrow red bands on a green ground,
apparently parts of a plain lattice pattern. At the Guildhall is a small
piece of plaster having a blue band edged by a white line and with a
yellow line beyond the red ground, and another at right angles (Fig.
113). This is probably part of a dado; there may have been little
subjects or sprigs in the square spaces. This is a notable example of
adding “pearling” to the edges of bands or the lines, a favourite method
of the painters of Londinium, as several of the other sketches show.
[Illustration:
FIG. 113.
]
A large fragment of decoration at the British Museum imitates marble. A
circle of green speckled “porphyry” has a margin of red “porphyry,” with
figured “marble” of pink-yellow beyond. The circle is defined by
scratched lines drawn on the plaster by a compass as a guide for the
decorator. This was doubtless part of a dado for which the size of the
circle is entirely suitable. Further, fragments of a similar dado were
found at Cirencester in position at the foot of a wall. This is
described by Buckmann and Newmarch, but they did not recognise the
marbling as such. One square panel contained a circle speckled “dark
pink and black”; the panels on either band were yellow with wavy
markings. Here, again, porphyry and marble were imitated. At Silchester,
fragments of marbling have been found, and in the Rochester Museum are
many other pieces. Most of these would have been from dadoes. A wall was
discovered in January 1922, in the centre of Gracechurch Street, the
plaster of which “still retained the lower part of square panels painted
in black outline, with a simple ornamentation around, and the painted
plaster gave the impression that it had been coloured in imitation of
marble.”
Two fragments at the British Museum, which were illustrated by Roach
Smith and Wright, are covered with a diaper arranged thus,
× × ×
× × ×
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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