Design for roofing.
against the brick parapet; and supports a stand for flowers. With the absence of offensive smoke, and with the use of the flue pedestal to supply warmth, the upper parts of our houses could easily be formed into conservatories.
The interior of the building was intended to be as profusely decorated with the cut woodwork as the exterior. The staircase balusters were of a rich pattern, the whole being stained after some ornamental wood, and varnished.
Staircase balusters.
The expense of constructing such a building would be 2450l.
In this style cut-wood decoration the French certainly excel us. Some English examples, very common in our railway stations, are shown below. The most ornamental is a pattern used by the author some few years ago; a rose is introduced to cover the fastening of the cut pattern to the fascia behind.
We have in England a carving-machine, known as Irving’s patent, that was a few years since much worked at a manufactory in Pimlico by Mr. Pratt of Bond Street. At one time it bid fair to exert a most important influence upon the production of this kind of cut-wood decoration. It could make such carvings with the greatest ease and rapidity, whether in stone or wood. The machine was a simple drill in a moveable arm, worked either by steam or a hand-wheel, on a moveable table; the combined motion rendered it capable of carving any form, however intricate, from the largest Gothic window-head, to the smallest screen. At Pimlico it was under the architectural superintendence of R. W. Billings. It is still used, together with Jordan’s patent for carving, at Lambeth.
The vignette gives a pattern for cut-wood balustrading.