Architectural molding fragment from Charleston, South Carolina

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A molding fragment from Charleston, South Carolina. The fragment is from a horizontal architectural element of a building. The fragment’s body is composed of gypsum plaster. On the back of the fragment are three patches of tan stucco remnants on one side. The fragment’s decorative surface has three layers of gray paint over a thin plaster wash and there are bands of reddish brown paint in the hallows on each side of the fragment. The fragment’s profile is trefoil shaped: three three-quarter round moldings with deep hallows in between. The molding at the center is thicker than the other two. The Old Slave Mart Museum catalog number, [R172], is handwritten in black ink over a small rectangular patch of white painted in the bottom left corner of the fragment’s decorative side. On the top of the center molding is a small series of diagonal hash marks that resemble railroad tracks.

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