Medallion Matters
by CATE CORCORAN
Popular in nineteenth century homes, plaster ceiling medallions
offer a visual transition and seat for a light fixture
in important rooms. Their elaborate bas-relief designs also
helped hide soot from oil and gas lamps.
They were de rigueur in the main entrance hall, parlors,
dining room, and large bedrooms. In Brooklyn, you will
not find them in small side bedrooms, halls, or bathrooms,
where wall sconces would be used, nor in kitchens, where
a J-hook might hang over the sink.
As one might expect, styles of medallions changed along
with other interior fashions and are one of several clues to
the age of a building. Greek Revival and Italianate medallions
often employ leaf motifs. At their most simple, such
a medallion might consist of leaves attached directly to
the ceiling and radiating out from a rosette in the center.
Plain-run moldings or beads might encircle the fanciful
center decoration. Elaborate variations in homes of the
well to do might be layered over bits of trellis or other
background patterns and studded with blossoms. A medallion
could be made entirely by hand on site, cast off site
in a mold, or built up using a combination of methods.
In the late 19th century in Brooklyn, Neo-Grec medallions
were typically made from molds in angular and asymmetric
shapes, such as two stars superimposed on each other
or a diamond fused with an oval. Ornamentation might
include a mix of foliate and neoclassical motifs.
Subsequent Queen Anne-style medallions were somewhat
more subdued and less exotic. Shapes could be
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RENOVATOR’S TOOLBOX
A Neo-Grec-style medallion from a house in Bed Stuy. Photo by Susan De Vries.