The opening itself was wide, and was lined with brick or stone. The interior was occupied by a fire-back of cast-iron and a movable grate or basket supported on dogs.
No. 97. Jacobean Door, shewing absense of architrave.
Doors were at first merely a part of the panelling without hanging frames, but later they were treated as important features of the rooms. They were often framed with columns and pilasters, surmounted by entablatures, with or without pediments. Obelisks were sometimes placed over the pilasters. The frieze was fluted or carved. In many cases the tympanum of the pediment or even one of the door panels bore the owner’s coat of arms.
In the earlier phases the mouldings framing the panels were simple in form, and worked on the stiles and rails. But later they were applied, being wider in display and more elaborate in section. These applied mouldings, evidently the result of mechanical appliances, later led to extreme license in broken angles and panellings of complicated form.
No. 98. Jacobean Doors.
Ceilings, and occasionally the frieze, were in plaster, decorated with intersecting ribs, or bands dividing the surface into compartments geometric in shape, and further enriched with stamped or modelled ornament.