Fig. 63.—Cistern, London.
Fig. 64.—Cistern, S. Kensington Museum.
The ribs, with the stock enrichments in new combinations, the date and initials, were attached to a wood panel the size of the cistern front; this was moulded in the sand and the casting made of good substance; stout strips were soldered across the inside as ties. One of the finest known of these is that at South Kensington Museum, of which one half of the front is here [illustrated], the other half repeats exactly, even to the initials on the shield; the date is 1732. This is in every way well designed and beautifully modelled. A part of one in the Guildhall Museum is an early example of the ordinary pattern, dated 1674.
The ribs for the pattern were formed in lead—a plumber disdaining the assistance of wood if he could avoid it—by beating strips of lead into an iron swage block, that was cut as a matrix about four inches long; these strips could be easily bent to the curved lines. Plain panelled cisterns like this were made as late as 1840.
Old lead pumps are now very seldom to be found. One remains at Wick, Christchurch, which is 6 inches in diameter, and is decorated by a crest—a boar’s head in a wreath—and the initials “G. B.” as well as the signature “J. Jenkins, Plummer, 1797.”
§ XIX. OF GUTTERS.
In England the gutters of important churches were generally formed behind the stone parapet, but at [Lincoln] the whole is formed of lead above a carved stone cornice. It is about two feet high and the outside is decorated with foiled circles closer or farther apart with due disregard for precision. In France gutters were often like this made on the top of the stone cornice; irons turned up carry a continuous rod, over which the lead was dressed, and as the outlets were frequent little fall was required.[31]
