Leadwork Part 2

At the Renaissance the leaded dome became a popular commonplace especially at Venice. For the most part these were covered like a roof with ordinary rolls. By forming ribs and panels in the wooden foundation a more elaborate but not more successful aspect is obtained. St. Paul's is well designed in this way. This design with the great ribs Sir Christopher Wren considered "less gothick than sticking it full of rows of little windows" as at St. Peter's. It was first intended to cover St. Paul's dome with copper, but 500 was saved by subst.i.tuting lead at a cost of 2,500.

At the National Gallery--a very careful and refined work, one of the last of the old scholarly dead language sort we call cla.s.sic--the lead covering is formed into raised scales and frets, very well and successfully done of its kind.

-- VI. OF ROOFS.

The Romans used lead as a roof covering. In the West "one can hardly (Viollet-le-Duc says) explore the ruins of a Gallo-Roman erection without finding some sheet-lead that had been employed for gutters or roofs." In the East--Eusebius says of Constantine's Basilica (the Holy Sepulchre) at Jerusalem--"the roof with its chambers was covered with lead to protect it from the winter rain." In England Bede tells us of Wilfrid having roofed his church at York with lead in the seventh century, and it has continued without a break in its use as the most perfect of coverings.

The methods employed in the middle ages are described by Burges and Viollet-le-Duc. The latter well remarks that of lead covering, as well as many other parts of the construction of buildings, we are a little too apt to think overmuch of the perfection of our modern methods while we are too little careful to learn the experience acquired by our forefathers.

The old cast lead is much thicker than the modern milled lead, being as much as twelve or thirteen pounds to the foot of surface. It is certainly not quite even in thickness, and is subject to faults in the casting, but it is not so liable to crack as is milled lead. The old lead employed has also a considerable quant.i.ty of silver and a.r.s.enic in it, which was the cause of the beautiful white oxide it obtained. Modern lead blackens as the preparation of lead now includes its "de-silverisation." The acid of timber which has not lost its sap decomposes lead; old building timber was water-seasoned as only ship timber now is.

The chief difficulties that had to be overcome in the use of lead were the weight of the sheets of lead to be maintained in position, and the great dilatation of the metal under the heat of the sun, so that it had to be at once strongly attached and free to move. The method followed was to nail it at the top and roll the lateral edges together.

The roofing at Canterbury was of twelve-pound lead and about 2.0 between the rolls. The thirteenth century lead of Chartres Cathedral, "covered externally by time with a patina hard, brown, and wrinkled, and shining in the sun," was in sheets eight feet long, attached at the top by nails with very large heads and held at the bottom by clips of iron that pa.s.sed down between the sheets and turned over the bottom edge of the upper one. The rolls were formed by turning over the margins one in the other without a wood roll; they were much smaller than the modern ones.

Our milled lead is rolled out in sheets about 16 6 feet and is usually cut in half lengthways, and 4 inches is allowed in each edge to form the rolls which are thus 2'-3? apart. Lead one inch thick is sixty pounds to the square foot, so six-pounds lead is 1/10th of an inch in thickness. We generally make the mistake of putting a longitudinal roll along the ridge, but it is not so done in our old roofs, nor should it be, for the running out of the rolls frets the ridge into a simple decoration.

The lead covering of old roofs should be jealously maintained--its loss is irreparable. If repair becomes absolutely necessary for the protection of the building, such lead should be recast, it should never be replaced by milled lead. The old metal is easily recast on the ground, and this is now frequently done, but not frequently enough. It was cast on a wood table with a projecting margin or curb all round; on this slid up and down a cross piece notched down to give the proper gauge to the lead which it levelled.

Where lead was applied to the vertical or steep planes of dormers or spires the interlocking of the sheets in herring-bone was a practical as well as an artistic expedient. Where nails had to be driven through exposed lead, in repairs or otherwise, flaps like little shields were laid over them soldered on the top edge. Lead, where used to incase wood tracery, as in the open work of spires or dormers, was secured by means of laps and rolls without solder so that it was free to expand and contract. The modern plumber is much too apt to employ soldered joints even in structural work.

Small openings were made like little dormers, for ventilation of the roof timbers, by dressing a stout piece of lead up into a triangle or half circle in front dying back on the roof with the back turned up under the tiles or slates.

Sometimes cast ornaments were applied to a slated roof; the disc with undulating rays on the slated apex of the north-west tower at Rouen is an instance.

-- VII. OF LEAD COFFINS.

In the later cla.s.sical period lead was much used for coffins; several of very fine workmanship have been discovered in Syria, some of these, very delicately ornamented are figured by Perrot, and Chipiez.[9] In the Louvre there is a finely decorated example of the Roman period, and large numbers of Roman lead coffins have been found both in England and in France. There is a very beautifully decorated early Christian coffin in the museum at Cannes, this has a border of vine and birds with monograms of Christ--??. ??T?S.[10] Fig. 15 shows portions of ornamentation from a remarkable series of coffins now in the museum of Constantinople. There are some eight or ten of these and all decorated in the most elaborate way with tendrils and medallions beautifully modelled in very slight relief. None of the symbols are definitely Christian, but they evidently belong to the same school as the last named. The neighbourhood of Beyrout and the ancient Sidon was the site of the discovery of most of these coffins of early Christian date.

[9] _History of Art_, "Phnicia."

[10] Ill.u.s.trated by Reber.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 15.--Ornaments from early Christian Coffins, Constantinople.]

The coffins found in England are not so much Roman as strictly Anglo-Roman, for far more have been found here than in any other country, such as have been found in France are near our sh.o.r.es as if certainly made of our lead, and the ornamentation of the English examples has a common likeness in the use of the scallop sh.e.l.l which is not represented abroad. The comparison can best be made in a little book by the learned archaeologist Abbe Cochet of Rouen, _Les Cercueils de Plomb_ (1871), in which the examples found in France are figured.

These English coffins and sepulchral cists are mostly in the British Museum and at Colchester. The cists are plain circular boxes some ten inches diameter by fourteen inches high; one of these is decorated by simple circles and another has crossed rods of "reel and bead," with applied small panels of chariots and horses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 16 and 17.--Cists, British Museum.]

The coffins have been found chiefly in the London district--in the Minories, Stepney, Stratford; at East Ham, Plumstead in Kent (this last is now in Maidstone Museum)--at Southfleet and at Colchester and Norwich. They are decorated by rods of "bead and reel" differently arranged on the lids in zig-zags or lozenges, with scallop sh.e.l.ls and plain rings placed in the s.p.a.ces. The rods and sh.e.l.ls were evidently separately impressed into the flat field of the sand mould and that with the artful carelessness which shows that the designer and the workmen were one and the same person, an artist. With these simple elements compositions are made of quite cla.s.sic distinction and grace. Mr.

Alma-Tadema apparently drew the fine leaden oleander tub in his picture from these coffins, and it makes a perfect flower-pot.

A coffin found at Pettham in Kent was decorated by a simple cord which pa.s.sed around once transversely in the middle and then each of the s.p.a.ces thus formed on lid, sides, and ends had diagonals of cord. A fragment of one in the museum at Cirencester is more finished and refined, it has a saltire of the twisted bars with terminations at their ends, and in one of the s.p.a.ces is a small female head.

The coffins are made like a modern paper box with a lid lapping over the sides. Some sketches are given from those in the British Museum. That shown in Fig. 19 was of full length (6 ft.) but only a part of the lid remains. The other two (Figs. 18 and 20) are less than 4 ft., one of which is ornamented with rings and ropes and curious forms like the letter B. Those at Colchester are like the former. These coffins are all very white with oxide.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 18 and 19.--Roman Coffins, British Museum.]

The French examples have been found at Boulogne, Beauvais, Amiens, Angers, Rouen, and Valogne near Cherbourg, but none are like the English in having rods of beads with scallop sh.e.l.ls. One has only groups of rings which, simple as it is, makes a design. Another at Rouen has a human head in a circle at the centre with six lions' heads in octagons.

That at Valogne has a trunk-shaped lid with flying genii and birds; and one at Nismes has lions and griffins, and between each pair persons planting a vine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20.--Roman Coffin, British Museum.]

There is just enough evidence to show that the use of leaden coffins was continued by the English after they had superseded the Romans. St.

Guthlac, Abbot of Croyland, was, Leland says, buried in a sarcophagus of lead. And St. Dunstan was buried at Canterbury in a lead coffin.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.--Thirteenth Century Coffin, Temple Church.]

Directly after the Conquest we find them in use. At Lewes there are two coffins of De Warren (1088), and his wife the daughter of the Conqueror (1085); they are covered with the reticulated meshes of a net, both sides and lid as if cast from actual netted cord. At the heads are the names WILLELM, GVNDRADA.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 22 and 23.--Thirteenth Century Coffins, Temple Church.]

St. Dunstan was re-interred in the new work, at Canterbury in 1180 in a coffin of lead which was "not plain, but of beautiful plaited work."

Some most remarkable coffins thus decorated were discovered in 1841 in relaying the floor of the Temple Church in London; the style of their design would show that they were made about the year 1200. They contained the bodies represented above them by the cross-legged stone effigies of knights. These coffins were drawn and published by Mr.

Edward Richardson in 1845, from whose careful drawings are made the accompanying ill.u.s.trations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 24.]

The extreme delicacy of the ornament is most remarkable. Here again the pattern design is made up of portions several times repeated in similar or different combinations; the panels were either cast to the required number and then arranged on a board from which the final mould was made; or the parts were impressed separately in a smooth and level surface of moulding sand, and this with all the rapid ease of self-sufficient art.

They are about 6 feet 6 inches long, and some are formed like the stone coffins of the time with a circular end for the head. The sides as well as the covering are decorated in the richest example by two of the same small square patterns alternating, and in others by vertical cords at intervals.

At Winchester there has recently been exposed a fifteenth century coffin bearing on the lid a cross and the arms of the Bishop Courtenay. (Fig.

24.)

Later the form was made to conform more closely to the body, being rather a wrapping than a box. That of Henry IV. (1413) at Canterbury was of this form, as also was that found at Westminster under the tomb of Henry VII., the latter had a small cross at the breast only.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 25.--At Moissac.]

The heart-box of Richard Cur de Lion is mentioned in another place.

There is a heart casket in the British Museum, circular and much like a flower-pot; on the lid is the device of a spear-head within a garter, and engraved outside is this inscription:--"Here lith the Harte of Sir Henrye Sydney. Anno Domini 1586."

A fine coffin (Fig. 25) is represented in the lead group of the entombment at Moissac in France. This is 15th century work.

-- VIII. OF FONTS.