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 entirely of bright white plaster. The back of the fragment has several small patches of sandy beige mortar remnants. Its decorative surface is a thin plaster layer washed with creamy browns and gray paints. 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 two at the top and bottom. The Old Slave Mart Museum catalog number, [R177], is handwritten in black ink over a small rectangular patch of white painted in the bottom center of the fragment’s decorative side. The fragment’s top and bottom edges are intact. Its side edges are broken with jagged edges.

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