The Architecture of Colonial AmericaEberlein, Harold Donaldson
History
The Architecture of Colonial America
Eberlein, Harold Donaldson
Architecture -- United States; Architecture, Colonial
The earliest windows were filled with small diamond shaped panes leaded
into the casements and the casement window was universally used. In the
fore part of the eighteenth century, double or single hung sash windows
became the fashion and were very generally substituted for the older
casements by alterations made in the manner alluded to in Chapter III,
although, quite frequently, particularly in the Middle and Southern
Colonies, no change in the shape or dimensions of the window openings
was considered desirable or necessary. The lights for the sashes were
universally small and it was not until the end of the eighteenth century
that they increased appreciably in size. It should be remembered that a
great deal of the charm and individuality of fenestration during both
the early Colonial and Georgian periods was due to the manifold
divisions of the lights--with lead in the first instance and with heavy
muntins in the second. A good many of the old leaded casements that had
endured, despite the favour of the new styles, till the outbreak of the
Revolutionary War disappeared at that time, the lead being melted to
make bullets. This is said to have been the fate of the original windows
in the Church of St. David at Radnor.
Paint, in the first years of colonisation during the seventeenth
century, though not unknown, was not in common use and it must be
admitted that the old woodwork, whether oak or pine, took on a
delightful tone in the course of a few years from the combined agency of
the atmosphere and the smoke of wood fires. In Pennsylvania and the
neighbourhood, paint both inside and out seems to have been used from
the first. It should be remembered, particularly in this connexion, that
paint for either exterior or interior use in the Colonial and Georgian
periods was not invariably white. Colours were frequently used and
specific reference has been made in Chapter VIII to the employment of
paint of various colours for panelling and other interior woodwork.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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