Adding style and proportion to interiors, decorative plaster mouldings vary from simple cornices to highly ornate ceiling centres and other adornments. Early cornices were ‘run’ in situ using mortar or lime putty to fashion a seamless ceiling decoration, sometimes embellished with ‘enrichments’ cast separately in moulds. After fibrous plaster was patented in 1856, decorative pieces were made in the workshop; using a mixture of hessian fibres and plaster of paris cast in a mould and reinforced with timber from behind, these were fixed into position on site.
How to repair
The most common source of damage to
