Egg-and-dart

Egg-and-dart molding at the top of an Ionic capital

Egg-and-dart or Egg-and-tongue is an ornamental device often carved in wood, stone, or plaster quarter-round ovolo mouldings, consisting of an egg-shaped object alternating with an element shaped like an arrow, anchor or dart. Egg-and-dart enrichment of the ovolo molding of the Ionic capital is found in Ancient Greek architecture at the Erechtheion and was used by the Romans.^[1] The motif has also been common in neoclassical architecture.^[2][3]

Gallery

• 
  The ornament is used to decorate building exterior.
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  The egg-and-dart moulding on a building cornice.
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  Archaeological site in Ostia Antica.
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  Architectural fragment with egg-and-dart moulding in Antalya, Turkey.
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  The moulding in Hôtel d'Alluye at Blois, Loir-et-Cher, France.
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  Egg-and-dart motifs (on right) from Meyer's Ornament

Notes

1. Lucy T. Shoe, Profiles of Greek Mouldings 1936, supplemented by Shoe, "Greek Mouldings of Kos and Rhodes", Hesperia 19.4 (October - December 1950:338-369 and illustrations)
2. Regan, Raina (February 21, 2012). "Building Language: Egg-and-dart". Historic Indianapolis. historicindianapolis.com. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
3. "Egg-and-dart". Buffalo as an Architectural Museum. buffaloah.com. Retrieved 11 September 2016.

References

• Lewis, Philippa; G. Darley (1986). Dictionary of Ornament. New York: Pantheon. ISBN 0-394-50931-5.

External links

• Media related to Egg and dart at Wikimedia Commons