Design No. 24 — A Small Country Retreat, or French Maisonette
This is a study for a small villa in the modern French style, one which has lately been introduced into several buildings of domestic character in England, the woodwork being sent from France. The chief feature of the style is the machine-cut ornamental wood; it is of common deal, about an inch or a little more in thickness. When placed up, and coloured a light fawn colour or plain yellow, it is extremely pleasing, and has the merit of being very cheap.
The design has an ornamental iron verandah completely round two sides of the building, with small upright standards taken through its roof, which are connected together with zinc wire-work; the intention being to permit flowering plants to grow over it, so that the front should be crowned with flowers. The villa is only intended for summer use, being confined in its accommodation. The ground plan, given on page 269, shows d and e, the drawing and dining rooms, divided one from the other by curtains hanging on a glazed screen; the length of the two rooms is 42 feet, their breadth 15 feet. They are decorated gaily in French style; the room c can be used as a study, but it is intended for a sleeping room; the kitchen f has a large larder h, but it would be desirable if the kitchen was formed a short distance away from the building, and connected with it by a passage; the rooms f and g could then be made into a bed and dressing-room. The wine cellar is at g, and a conservatory i, is placed at the end of the building.
The elevation of the front of the building and the two sections show the general construction of the upper part of the house. This was in timber, the flues alone being of brick.
The plan of the upper floor shows four rooms; each of the flues is supplied with its pedestal, so that should the house be occupied in winter, these upper apartments could be kept well aired by the fires in the lower apartments, without any attention from the servants. The framing of the upper portion is correctly shown in the section copied from the working drawing.
All elevation of a small portion of the verandah, showing its iron work, is given; and an illustration to a large scale shows its ornamental zinc guttering, and the carved wood French ornament, a section showing how they are fastened on; and the zinc gutter placed in front is likewise given.
The following is a design in purely French taste for the circular top over the entrance porch on the upper floor.
The roofs of buildings in this style should be covered with zinc. The French are as much before us in their use of this metal as they are with their cut woodwork.
Roofs covered with zinc could be made flatter, and have a covering or floor of boards, each board ½ an inch apart. An illustration is given of such a construction; it has a light iron railing with a scroll against the brick parapet; and supports a stand for flowers. With the absence of offensive smoke, and with the use of the flue pedestal to supply warmth, the upper parts of our houses could easily be formed into conservatories.
The interior of the building was intended to be as profusely decorated with the cut woodwork as the exterior. The staircase balusters were of a rich pattern, the whole being stained after some ornamental wood, and varnished.
The expense of constructing such a building would be 2450l.
In this style cut-wood decoration the French certainly excel us. Some English examples, very common in our railway stations, are shown below. The most ornamental is a pattern used by the author some few years ago; a rose is introduced to cover the fastening of the cut pattern to the fascia behind.
We have in England a carving-machine, known as Irving’s patent, that was a few years since much worked at a manufactory in Pimlico by Mr. Pratt of Bond Street. At one time it bid fair to exert a most important influence upon the production of this kind of cut-wood decoration. It could make such carvings with the greatest ease and rapidity, whether in stone or wood. The machine was a simple drill in a moveable arm, worked either by steam or a hand-wheel, on a moveable table; the combined motion rendered it capable of carving any form, however intricate, from the largest Gothic window-head, to the smallest screen. At Pimlico it was under the architectural superintendence of R. W. Billings. It is still used, together with Jordan’s patent for carving, at Lambeth.
The vignette gives a pattern for cut-wood balustrading.