Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 35
Gauged 'blocked'
or 'rusticated' piers
at Lincoln's Inn
Fields, London, date
unknown, but now
believed to have been
removed and re-built
in the mid-eighteenth
century. (Courtesy:
City of London, 'The
London Metropolitan
Archives')
a thin brush. This practice is referred to in accounts as 'pencylling'. Certain cut
and rubbed brickwork might still be stuccoed during this period, but was not
required when the rubbers were colour matched and the façade was intended
to be rubbed smooth.
In terms of finishing exposed cut and rubbed work, one finds references not
only to it being 'rubbed' or 'polished', but also, as at Somerset House, London
(1609-13) to the chimney stacks undergoing 'polishing and rauncering'. This as
Colvin (1982, 257) suggests 'presumably gave the appearance of polished rance'.
The term 'rance' is according to Colvin (1982, 33) 'a veined, dingy-red marble,
from Tournai in France'. Some historic, un-washed, rubbers, when their faces are
cut and rubbed, do indeed present a slightly marbled effect, due to a less-refined
mixing of a sometimes varying raw material. It has also been suggested that in
the Netherlands this clay blending might have been a deliberate practice, for aes-
thetic effect, by some native brickmakers. Dirk De Vries (2006, 3262) states:
…a special effect could be given to the surface of a brick by mixing little balls of
yellow and red clay to a certain extent, since the aim was not to obtain a homo-
genous mixture but rather a kind of flaming pattern.
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