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| - Coade stone was a ceramic material that has been described as an artificial stone. It was first created by Mrs Eleanor Coade (Elinor Coade, 1733-1821), and sold commercially from 1769 to 1833. The building boom in London, at this time, led to a high demand for ornate features to decorate and adorn brick-built Georgian houses. The showrooms of Mrs Coade's Artificial Stone Company, in Westminster Bridge Road, provided a huge array of 'off the shelf' solutions for builders and architects, ranging from small keystones for over front doors to corner and window features and almost entire façades. The factory was in Lambeth, London, where the Royal Festival Hall now stands.
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| abstract
| - Coade stone was a ceramic material that has been described as an artificial stone. It was first created by Mrs Eleanor Coade (Elinor Coade, 1733-1821), and sold commercially from 1769 to 1833. The building boom in London, at this time, led to a high demand for ornate features to decorate and adorn brick-built Georgian houses. The showrooms of Mrs Coade's Artificial Stone Company, in Westminster Bridge Road, provided a huge array of 'off the shelf' solutions for builders and architects, ranging from small keystones for over front doors to corner and window features and almost entire façades. The factory was in Lambeth, London, where the Royal Festival Hall now stands. The company initially did well, and boasted an illustrious list of customers such as George III and members of the English nobility (Wendy Moonan remarks in the New York Times that Mrs. Coade sold to "a Debrett's full of English lords and Dukes.". Despite the presence of Coade stone at several prominent sites, after the first Mrs. Coade's death in 1821, her daughter and relatives (who inherited the firm) clearly did not do as well as the firm was bankrupted in 1833.==The material== Coade Stone is a form of Stoneware (vitrified ceramic). Mrs Coade’s own name for her products was Lithodipyra, which was a word constructed from ancient Greek words, which she strung together, meaning stone/twice/fire (λιθος/δις/πυρα). Its colours varied between light grey to light yellow (or even beige) and its surface is best described as having a matte finish. The ease with which the product could be moulded to complex shapes made it ideal for large statues, sculptures and sculptural façades. Moulds were often kept for many years, for repeated use. One-offs were clearly much more expensive to produce, as they would have to carry the entire cost of creating the mould. One of the more striking features of Coade is its incredible weathering resistance, which is better than that of most stone in the harsh London environment. Thus, examples of Coade stonework have survived very well; prominent examples listed above have survived without any apparent wear and tear even after 150 years. As a material, Coade stone was replaced by the much cheaper Portland cement (an artificial material) and it appears that it was largely phased out by the 1840s.
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