The allure of carved ornate sandstone – A must-read for art lovers
Sandstone, like many types of natural stone is a common type of historic and modern masonry building materials. Sandstone is a sedimentary stone, similiar to limestone but with a higher silica content. The image below shows an example of a carved ornate sandstone at a window in an exterior building facade.
The detail is remarkabe. You can see the dressed marks left by a pitching chisel and other small details indicating the traditional hand carved methods of artisanship. From an angle you can see the three dimesions of the chiseled artwork.
In a close up you can see the fine level of detail, even after many decades of natural weathering and deterioration.
Sandstone and limestone are relatively soft stones. Sandstone is largely silica based whereas limestone has a higher content of calcium. Both stones are susceptible to acid rains caused by man-made polution.
Additional images follows below.
This building presents an example of ashlar masonry. Rubble masonry, by comparison does not use rectilinear masonry units.
See the following link for more information on brownstone, a type of standstone.
