Cast stone

Description

A precast building stone prepared from several formulations that harden to a rocklike solid. Examples of some cast stone binders are: clay (Coade's stone), plaster (Protean stone), water glass (Siliceous Concrete Stone), oxychloride cement (casting stone), Keene's cement (marezzo marble); epoxy, and portland cement (Frear stone, Victoria stone, Benedict stone). Cast stones were used extensively in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They often incorporated fine and coarse aggregates for texture along with pigments or dyes to imitate coloring and veining of natural stones. Cast stones were produced in many sizes and shapes, often with intricate patterns and tracery.

See also Precast concrete.

Synonyms and Related Terms

artificial stone; pierre artificielle (Fr.); pedra artificial (Port.); beton; coignet-béton; art stone; composite stone; casting stone; scagliola; pietra dura; marezzo marble

Brand names: Victoria stone; Protean stone; Frear stone; Siliceous Concrete Stone; Coade's stone; Benedict stone; Arnold stone; Chicago Art Marble; Dextone; Edmunds Art Stone; Instone; Litholite; Pulham stone; Haddon stone; Sphinxstone

Risks

Freeze-thaw cycles may cause surface scaling when moisture is present.

Resources and Citations

• A. Cowden, D. Wessel, "Cast Stone", in Twentieth-Century Building Materials, T. Jester (ed.), McGraw-Hill: New York, 1995.

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000