Clandon Park, Surrey, had one of the finest early eighteenth-century plaster interiors until its destruction in 2015. Despite this loss, the fire has provided some insights into the techniques employed by plasterworkers in making standard members of the classical orders, such as columns, capitals, and entablatures.
Columns
The columns in the marble hall were part of an impressive architectonic decorative treatment that included the extraordinary figurative scheme on the ceiling. At their core was a timber post with a triangular footing in the base that rose up to the height of the capital and from which the three-quarter column was attached to the brick wall behind it. As can be seen in the orthographic views and models below, the outer surface of the column was built up in layers of plaster around a lath substructure, the final outer coat being smoothly finished.
In addition, the fire has provided insights into the carpentry substructure of entablatures and cornices. The model below is based on surviving evidence for the lath-and-plaster substructure for the entablature in the state bedroom. The original was an enriched Ionic entablature close to that published by Clandon’s architect, Giacomo Leoni, in his 1715 edition of Palladio’s Quattro Libri. The plaster was built up in several rough layers over the lath before the high quality layers completed the surfaces of the various mouldings.
For further information on the surviving fabric at Clandon, see Sophie Chessum, ‘‘Onslow Palace’: new evidence of eighteenth-century craft technique at Clandon Park’. In Enriching Architecture: Craft and its conservation in Anglo-Irish building production, 1660–1760, edited by Christine Casey and Melanie Hayes, 17–58. UCL Press, 2023.