Chap. III. TEEEA-COTTA.

575
began about 1762 to make statues, bassi-rilievi, &c. About 1825 Eossi made the
statues, cipitals, antefixse, and other Grecian ornaments for St. Pancras Church, London,
for the Inwoods ; and Bubb executed in terra-cotla the frieze of the opera-house in the
Haymarket, as also the pedimental sculpture and statues of Cumberland Terrace, Eegent's
Park. The terra-cotta made by Goade and Seeley was chiefly from the Poole clay, com-
bined -with tlint and sand. It has withstood heat and frost, and is more perfect than the
stonework or cement work around it of the same date, which in some cases has had to ba
painted to preserve it. Their well-tried ingredients and proportions of clay and siliceous
materials, and the degree of vitrification, the essential to the durability of terra-cotta, were
adopted by Mr. Pulham. One of the greatest revivals in pottery connected with architecture
took place about 1833, when Mr. Wright, of Shelton, obtained a patent for making inlaid
tiles, a patent bought by Mr. Herbert Mintou, who improved upon it. The churches
at Leverbridge, and at Piatt, in Lancashire, by the late Mr. Edmund Sharpe, in 1815,
were important examples of the revival of the use of terra-cotta.
1908c. At Buckingham Palace, near the stables, were placed, about 1836, severallarge
vases made by Mr. Elashfield; these are in perfect preservation, while the stone coping
on which they are placed is decayed. Ho also turned out some of the best work ever
made in this material, as atDiilwieh College, 1866, and at Lady Marriane Alford's house
at Ivnightsbridge. The facade of the Science Schools, in Exhibition Road, South Ken-
sington, is a largo and florid example. The Natural History Museum at South Kensing-
ton, by Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., is of terra-cotta inside and outside. Mr. E. W.
Edis has used it at the Constitutional Club in Northumberland Avenue
;
and many other
buildings of late years show its use. Among those in progress are the new Law Courts
at Birmingham, which have been specially designed for its use by Messrs. Webb and Bell,
19[)8d. In works
of
art, as in sculpture, the artist has only to model in the clay, as he
is obliged to do before he commences to carve out the marble ; the clay is at once burned,
and all the after labour on the marble or stone is saved. Still it is attended with some
risk, for an accident may happen in the burning, and then the modelling has to be redone.
Large works should be done in conjunction with the potter, who would supply the proper
clay, and see that the thicknesses throughout were as even as possible. The largest piece
of sculpture ever executed in terra-cotta was the group of America at the Albert
Memorial, executed in 1876 by Mr. John BjU, It consists of five figures, each 10 feet
high, with a buffalo of like proportion ; it is now at the Smithsonian Institute, Washing-
ton. Other similar, or ornamental, work can be finished up at once in clay by the artist,
and burned, and are thus never repeated, in the sense of moulded work. Vases, 12
to 15 feet circumference, are made as true on the upper edge as rubbed stone. They
have cost less than if they had been moulded and cast in compo or cement, and they
have the sharpness of the best carved stone.
1908e. In 1880 it was alleged that English architects had not given to the architectural
treatment of terra-cotta the degree of attention and experiment which it deserves. Sir
G. G. Scott, in Gothic Architecture, Secular and Domestic, 1857, wrote: "Terra-cotta
seems the natural accompaniment of brick, but it should not be usei as an artificial
stone. It is the highest development of brick, and should be used as such. By a judi-
cious use of brick, moulded as well as plain, encaustic tiles, and terra-cotta, we might
develop a variety of constructive decoration peculiarly our own."
1908/. A writer puts tUe use of terra-cotta and stone as follows
:

"It is argued that

it is improper, inartistic, and uneconomical to use terra-cotta constructively so as to
imitate stonework, but it is eminently suited for surface decoration and architectural
ornamentation, and when so used is capable of high artistic treatment at a moderate
cost. Stone is a natural material, and when fixed every part of it does duty construc-
tively. Terra-cotta is an artificial substance
;
it is but a shell or case, which generally has
to be filled up with concrete or brickwork in walling, or with an iron core for a column,
or with a girder for a lintel, before it can be used constructively. Terra-cotta used
to imitate stonework is inartistic, for stone is worked with the greatest nicety, and fixed
with perfect accuracy. With terra-cotta it is not possible, at its best, to secure perfect
jointings or straight arrises; there is a monotony of texture in all its plain surfaces, as
well as a general inability in the material to acquire additional charm under the infiuonce
of the mellowing touch of time. It is not economical to employ terra-cotta in a way ti)
imitate stone constructively. The rough stone is brought to the works, squared, and fixed.
The terra-cotta, however, arrives at the works in the form of a hollow body, to be added
to before it can be worked in. Stone is easily corrected if it be found inaccurate ; whereas
for terra-cotta, chipping, cutting, and rasping has to be r?sorted to, to rectify twisted
lines and other inaccuracies; or gaps in a building left for a time until defective or
deficient blocks have been manufactured. As it is sent to the works so, probably, the
material is fixed generally."
1908^. "Terra-cotta, as a superior sort of brick, has to be designed accordingly, and
used in string courses, cornices, and such like places, where ordinary bricks so fixed are
liable to be atfected by the weather; and when manufactured in small pieces, for repeti-