Asher Benjamin explains how to make stucco

 

First, a brief introduction to stucco. 

Are stucco and plaster the same thing? Not now.Today stucco is used outside. Its recipe will be different from plaster used inside. In 1814, the names referred to the same thing.  

  

These cherubs are plaster. They cavort in the dining room of the Canfield Casino of the History Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY.   

 

 

 

 They are forever in motion on the frieze of the entablature, 

 just below the deep cornice, 

a counterpoint to the circular window ringed with energetic vegetation centered under the coffered barrel vault above.  

Lots and lots of white plaster. Made from lots of molds. Mass production allowed this extravagance in 1902.

 

 

 

100 years earlier moldings were made from wood. Plaster sealed the wall. It was held in place by lath.   

Plaster was lime, sand, hair and water, mixed by hand. 

Its keys fit into the spaces between the lath, holding the plaster in place,  allowing the plaster to create a 'wall'. That plaster kept out drafts, reflected light and created a space, a place. It still does.  

 This plaster is applied to lath which was split by hand, thus the uneven shadows.   

 

This image of the back side of lath shows the plaster keys pushing though the spaces between the lath.  This lath is even because it was cut by a circular saw. This plaster wall would be much smoother than the image above. 

 

 

 

Asher Benjamin shared the latest uses of plaster with aspiring Master Builders in his book, The American Builder's Companion. 

It was first published in 1806, then updated in 1814 to include stucco ornaments (Plate 36,  prefaced by 3 pages (74-76) of instructions, titled Plate XXXVI.

 

 

 

 

Benjamin was a Master Builder with apprentices. He also ran a school for carpenters in Boston. He was skilled at describing how to execute the work. 

 

 

 

 

Here is his footnote describing how to make the stucco. He says to  just mix it up, beat it well every day, and let it cure for four or five days on a brick wall.

Not too much a stretch from plastering a wall, but seemingly far removed from the Canfield's yards of dentil and corbel moldings and the carefree cherubs.

 

He describes the best way to make an ornamental stucco ceiling, by hand. 

Then he explains how to do it more quickly, cheaper. What he describes is the beginning of mass production, ie: the Industrial Revolution, starting us on the path to those cherubs.

For the rest of Benjamin's instructions, please read his notes. He wishes "to give the student every information in my power... and be of no injury to those who are well acquainted with the art of stucco working."*  I think he would be pleased that we are reading his instructions 200 years later.

 

In 2009  I wrote 2 posts about  how Asher Benjamin wanted the builders who would read his pattern books to see and enjoy what moldings could create. He clearly loved the "beautiful variety of light and shade". 

I included the portrait of Benjamin in the first post. Historic Deerfield recently cleaned it. To see it please google 'Asher Benjamin'.


http://www.jgrarchitect.com/2009/01/beautiful-variety-of-light-and-shade.html

http://www.jgrarchitect.com/2009/12/strong-mouldings-and-falling-water.html

The geometry of 18th C. furniture design explored by Steve Brown and Will Neptune

 Steve Brown and Will Neptune, are cabinet markers who also teach. 
They wrote  Classic Proportion in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design.*  It is a fascinating exploration of the use of geometry in the design of 18th c. cabinet makers. The illustrations are beautiful.

I first read the article around 2020. Unfortunately, I knew very little about 18th C. cabinetmaking. Visually, the circles overwhelmed me. I just didn't get it. I put the article aside, hoping that maybe later I would understand. 

Last winter  I tried again. The article references James Gibbs' Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture**, first published in 1722. a book I hadn't read.  I bought a copy. It was a poor reproduction, difficult to read. Then I found a clean, legible copy online. I could enlarge the words and images to easily study them.  This drawing is part of Plate XXXVII.

Gibbs wrote clear and thorough explanations. 

 As I learned, I remembered the tic marks and notations  running up the borders of other pattern books: Wm Pain, A. Benjamin, Owen Biddle.  Now those segmented lines made sense. They are units of measure, a length which determines the other lengths in a specific design, a dimension that can be set with dividers, a compass. Palladio used m for 'module', Gibbs used dia for 'diameter'. Both are names for the same thing, a dimension, a building unit.    

I found that Gibbs' rules for frontispieces were used on this side of the Atlantic. ***  

 

Here is a partial view of Pain's Frontispiece in the Ionic Order, c. 1774.***

The dimensions of the door are noted in diameters as well as in feet and inches. 

 

Asher Benjamin's engraving of a Doric entrance, 1797, lays out the dimensions along the left side, but simply lists them along the bottom. He writes that "the height of the column is 10 parts, one of which is the diameter of the column..."  He uses one diameter for the sub-plinth, two for the entablature.

Yes, Asher Benjamin's first book has poor quality prints.***  

  

 

 

A partial view of an Owen Biddle frontispiece showing  a scale at the bottom, the door width divided into 9 parts, and the height shown as 10 diameters. ***

Finally, I could begin to read 'Classical Proportions'. To encourage you to read the essay, here are 2 diagrams from the article. 

Figure 12, Line drawing of a Chapin high chest of drawers with a modular overlay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 49 is a detail of the foot and ankle of a leg.

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 50 shows the diagrams for the geometry used to lay out the sizes and curves of the foot, showing, to quote the authors,"the stages of development." As this is quite similar to my understanding of how designs develop I thoroughly enjoyed thinking through the details. 

 

  

  

 

  

  

 

 

 

 

 

 *Classic Proportion in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design is available on line. https://chipstone.org/article.php/787/American-Furniture-2017/Classical-Proportioning-in Eighteenth Century Furniture Design.  

** James Gibbs, Rules for Drawing the Several Parts of Architecture, London, 1722.

*** William Pain, The Practical Builder, published in London, 1774. partial view of PlateXVI.

      Asher Benjamin, The Country Builder's Assistant, published in Greenfield, MA, 1797. partial view of Plate X.

     Owen Biddle, Biddle's Young Carpenter's Assistant, Philadelphia and New York, 1805, partial view of Plate 17. 

My blog posts which explore the use of Gibbs' Rules in the States.  

https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2024/12/james-gibbs-rules-for-drawing-several.html

https://www.jgrarchitect.com/2025/01/james-gibbs-and-rockingham-meeting-house.html