Stair Parts Fig. 61 shows a built-up newel, and a couple of tread ends and a part of baluster; it also shows the rail with ramp entering the newel post. The bottom tread is partly returned against the base of newel.
Stair Parts Fig. 61
Stair Parts Fig. 62, 63 (from left to right)
The example shown in Stair Parts Fig. 62 may be put down as one seldom required in this country, though I have seen it, or one very similar, employed on a stairway leading to a gallery or speaker's platform. It is almost a solid stair parts balustrade.
Stair Parts Fig. 63 is of a style often employed in and about public buildings in England, Belgium and France.
In styles of this kind there is no regularity; the newels and balusters maybe of a different pattern on each flight of stairs; they offer an abundance of opportunity for a display of originality of design on the part of the architect.
Stair Parts Fig. 64
The example shown at Stair Parts Fig. 64 is taken from a stairway in St. Jacob's Church, Bruges. The newel is a carved figure which is said to be .one of the finest pieces of carving in Europe. The rail and sub-rail are heavy, and the spaces between them a r e filled with fine carvings instead of balusters. The string is also carved with a running wreath. The whole is made of heavy oak. The work is over two hundred years old and is in excellent preservation at this date.
Stair Parts Fig. 65, 66 ( from left to right)
A couple of commonplace newels are illustrated at Stair Parts Figs. 65 and 66. The first is simply a turned post with an octagon base and flat facets, or neck, and surbase. The second example belongs to the so-called Queen Anne style. It is neither more nor less than a square post with a few ornaments worked on two sides on a rake with the line of rail, and has chamfered corners. The ornaments are worked square across the lower and upper faces from the lines of the raking ornaments where they cut the angles of the post.
Stair Parts Fig. 67
The example of stair parts newel shown in Stair Parts Fig. 67 is from the Cincinnati school of design, of which Benn Pitman was principal. This newel was carved by a young Guild lady, Miss Louise Nourse, and is worked to over two inches relief projecting one inch over the border. The entire height of a newel is 4 ft. 9 in. It is illustrated here as an example of what may be done by the ordinary workman if he only apply himself to the task. Newel posts offer splendid opportunities to the carver. The newels shown at Figs. 68 and 69 are octagon in section and are rather elaborate in finish. This style of newel is often made use of, but I confess I do not like them; they seem more like pedestals than newels, and are certainly vulgar when made up with different colored woods. They are also unnecessarily costly, as they entail considerable labor in the making up; particularly is this true of Stair Parts Fig. 68, as all the mouldings must be mitered around the cap and the base. The result is not worth the labor, as the architectural effect is disappointing.
Stair Parts Fig. 68, 69 (from left to right)
I will close my remarks on stair parts newels and newel posts by offering a few, examples of quaint design culled from domestic and foreign sources; the example shown at Fig. 70 is taken from a stairway in Boston. This is a handsome design, but has one fault: the central column looks too much like a screw. It gives one the impression of a jack screw for raising great weights. If this column was fluted, the effect would be much more pleasing.
Stair Parts Fig. 70
The carved newel shown at Stair Parts Fig. 7I is drawn from an example at Argeles on the Spanish frontier near the Pyrenees. The one shown at Stair Parts Fig. 72 is at Tuz, a small town near Argeles.
Stair Parts Fig. 71
The three examples shown at Stair Parts Figs. 73, 74 and 75 are from the same neighborhood as are those shown in Stair Parts Figs. 7I and 72. They are quaint and odd, and are generally placed in small narrow halls dimly lighted, and are apt to startle a stranger when he first enters. The examples offered are among the best stair parts, but there are some that rise above the head, and are topped off with hideous faces or grinning skulls and other uncanny things.
Stair Parts Fig. 72, 73 & 74 (from left to right)