and an inexpensive alternative to natural stone. However, it has eventually come to be recognised as an exceptional example of the plasterer's craft and is now prized for its historic value as well as being used in new construction because of its benefits as a plastic material suited to molding in ornate shapes. Scagliola columns are not generally built of the solid material. Instead scagliola is trowelled onto a canvas which is wrapped around the column's core, and the canvas peeled away when semi-hardened. The scagliola is then surfaced in place. The verd antique columns and pilasters in the Anteroom at Syon House are made out of marble not scagliola as it is widely perceived (a beautiful and rare, predominantly green marble that was quarried in Larissa of Greece since antiquity). These columns are not solid. Round sections of marble were painstakingly cut as a veneer of an approximate thickness of 5–6 mm and then glued onto a column core that is hollow and was probably made out of plaster. On closer inspection the viewer can see the joints of the various sections. The discerning eye will soon realise that they are looking at verd antique veneered marble and not verd antique scagliola. The 3.6 metre high verd antique scagliola columns that can be seen at Dropmore House, Buckinghamshire, are based on the colours and design of this historical work at Syon House. Both research and execution of these new columns were undertaken recently by the contemporary scagliolist Michael Koumbouzis. Gallery See also Polished plaster Coade stone References John Fleming, "The Hugfords of Florence", The Connoisseur, 1955, cxxxvi. 109. Conor O'Neill, In Search of Bossi, The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society, Vol. I, 1998, pp. 146–175 A. M. Massinelli, Scagliola. L'arte della pietra di luna' :it:Bianco Bianchi (artigiano), Roma, 1997 R. de Salis, Fane-Stanhope scagliola, London, 2008. Donald Cameron, Scagliola Inlay Work: the problems of attribution, The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society, Vol. VII, 2004, pp. 140 – 155 Patrick Pilkington: The Chimneypiece in Ireland in the 18th. Century, Ireland's Antiques & Period Properties, Vol. 5, no.2, 2008-9 pp. 78–82. Notes Architecture Building materials Craft materials Plastering Wallcoverings Italian inventions