Scagliola
[1] The scagliola technique came into fashion in 17th-century[2] Tuscany as an effective substitute for costly marble inlays, the pietra dura works created for the Medici family in Florence.
[3] Scagliola is a composite substance made from plaster of Paris, glue and natural pigments, imitating marble and other hard stones.
The material may be veined with colors and applied to a core, or desired pattern may be carved into a previously prepared scagliola matrix.
The pattern's indentations are then filled with the colored, plaster-like scagliola composite, and then polished with flax oil for brightness, and wax for protection.
Batches of pigmented plaster, modified with animal glue are applied to molds, armatures and pre-plastered wall planes in a manner that accurately mimics natural stone, breccia and marble.
An early use of scagliola in England is in a fireplace at Ham House, Surrey, which was brought from Italy along with the window sill in the reign of Charles II.
A later firm, Sharpe & Emery, Pearce St., Dublin produce a number of examples in the neo-classical Bossi style, sometimes using original chimneypieces.
Having received his first top from the Irishman Friar Ferdinando Henrico Hugford (1695–1771) around 1740 Walpole had asked his friend Mann to acquire some more... (one of these tables is at The Vyne.
In a letter dated 26 November 1741 Mann writes to Walpole: Your scagliola table was near finished when behold the stone on which the stuff is put, opened of itself so that all that was done, to his [Hugford's] great mortification is spoilt.
The nasty priest [Hugford] will have 25 zecchins [£12 10s] besides many thanks, for the preference given to me, for some simple English have been tampering with him and offered 30 to get it, though it is by no means such a fine performance.
You must make the greater account of them, as it is impossible to get any more of the same man [Hugford], nor indeed of his disciple here [Belloni], who is a priest too, and has been four years about a pair I bespoke of him, which he tells me plainly he cannot finish in less than two more.
They work for diversion and won't be hurried.In modern times—Tusmore House, Oxfordshire: The great triumph of the saloon, however, is the use of scagliola, including the richly coloured and figured Sienna shafts of the eight fluted Corinthian columns...and the urns, entablature and balustrade to the second-floor landing which gives access to four plaster-vaulted ante rooms serving the main bedrooms.
St. Louis Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri, prominently features scagliola in its magnificent Grand Hall, the Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, IL, Cathedral of St. Helena in Helena, MT, Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, Milwaukee Public Library Central Library in Milwaukee, WI and the French Lick Resort Casino, French Lick, IN which recently underwent a major restoration.
However, it has eventually come to be recognised as an exceptional example of the plasterer's craft and is now prized for its historic value as well as being used in new construction because of its benefits as a plastic material suited to molding in ornate shapes.
Round sections of marble were painstakingly cut as a veneer of an approximate thickness of 5–6 mm and then glued onto a column core that is hollow and was probably made out of plaster.
