Bankart, George P. The Art of the Plasterer: An Account of the Decorative Development of the Craft. Scribners: New York, 1909.

Collection: Ayres & Ayres, Architects

George Bankart’s The Art of the Plasterer is an Arts and Crafts era volume that resurrects the plasterer’s craft as not simply a mechanical practice but also an artistic endeavor in possession of a unique historical trajectory. This attempt to document the history of plasterwork as a decorative art is perhaps the first, organizing content by plaster type and material along a temporal register that recognizes first antiquity, then the renaissance and then, English traditions of plasterwork. Though somewhat obtuse in its imagining, the tome coalesces a wealth of material, including photographs and detailed renderings, to form a comprehensive investigation of plasterwork as both a craft and decorative product. The resulting narrative inserts this ancient practice into a specific lineage of design.

Call number: -Q- 729.5 B225A c.2