The history of plastering
Plasterwork is one of the most ancient of building techniques. Evidence shows that the dwellings of primitive man were erected in a simple fashion with sticks and plastered with mud. The pyramids in Egypt contain plasterwork executed at least four thousand years ago, probably much earlier, and yet hard and durable, at the present time.
From recent discoveries it has been ascertained that the tools of the plasterer of that time were practically identical in design, shape and purpose with those used today. For their finest work, the Egyptians used a plaster made from calcined gypsum just like plaster of Paris of the present time, and their methods of plastering on reeds resemble in every way our lath, plaster, float and set work. Hair was introduced to strengthen the stuff, and the whole finished somewhat under an inch thick.
Very early in the history of Greek architecture plaster of a fine white lime stucco was used, such has been found at Mycenae. The art had reached perfection in Greece more than five centuries before Christ, and plaster was frequently used to cover temples externally and internally, in some cases even where the building was of marble. It formed a splendid ground for decorative painting. The temple of Apollo at Bassae, built of yellow sandstone about 470 BC, is an excellent example. Pavements of thick, hard plaster, stained with various pigments, were commonly laid in Greek temples.
The Roman architect Vitruvius, in his book on architecture written about 16 BC, gives detailed information concerning the methods of making plaster and the manner of using it. "The lime used for stucco," he writes, "should be of the best quality and tempered a long time before it is wanted for use. The Greeks, besides making their stuccowork hard with thin coats of marble-dust plaster polished with chalk or marble, caused the plaster when being mixed to be beaten with wooden staves by a great number of men.
Some persons cutting slabs of such plaster from ancient walls use them for tables and mirrors." Pliny the Elder tells us that, "No builder should employ lime which had not been slaked at least three years," and that, "The Greeks used to grind their lime very fine and beat it with pestles of wood." In England the walls of large houses and mansions were plastered above the wainscoting and colored, while the ornamented plaster ceilings of the time of Henry VIII, Elizabeth and James I, are still to be seen.
Still earlier specimens of the plasterer's skill are visible in the pargeted and ornamented fronts of half-timbered houses.