EARLY GEORGIAN
The carved or panelled main entrance door was the principal ornamental feature of the Georgian façade. It was, except in costly buildings with stone details, the work of the joiner carver, who kept abreast of fashion by studying pattern books.
In the earlier part of the 18th century, Baroque plain or carved door cases had elaborately carved elements including heavy brackets supporting a hood, sometimes formed as a shell.
These carved brackets were usually carved with stylised animals, foliage or cherubs, or designed as classical consoles with scrolls. In the 1720s and 30s, Palladian designs based on the temple form became popular. Columns and pilasters followed exact rules of proportion.
The principle entrance plain or carved door itself is always panelled or carved, often with heavy fielded or carved panels in two vertical rows. Early doors were tall, filling the entire opening, but have often been cut down later to accommodate a fanlight. During this period all front plain or carved doors were painted in dark colours or grained to imitate wood.
The evolution of internal carved or panelled doors follows a similar pattern. In grand house plain panelled or carved doors on the principal floors are often double, and set in deep reveals. They have handsome ring handles to the rim-locks. Ordinary doors were fitted into plain doorcases with architrave mouldings and other joinery details en suite with the room. Upper floors, below stairs areas and all lesser houses have simpler varieties of the fashionable panel door. Plank construction hangs on in country areas.
COLONIAL DOORS 1607-1780
In the American Colonies doors from the 17th century are generally battened; that is, constructed of vertical boards nailed together with two or more horizontal battens on the rear. German and Dutch colonists used dovetailed battens. Doors were decorated with scratched or carved designs on the vertical boards, chamfering on the battens or sponge painting. Surrounds are simple, comprising the structural timbers of the house, which are usually chamfered. Door fittings tend to be simple and chunky made of wrought iron or wood. Batten doors continued in use throughout the Colonial period, and beyond in smaller houses and secondary rooms.
In America Panelled or Carved doors began to appear in better houses by the late 17th century. Two panels in low relief are typical. Heavily carved or moulded doors are a development of the early 18th century, but it was not until the 1730s and the advent of the Georgian style carved door meant that the carved and panelled door reached its fullest elaboration. At this time that raised-panel or carved door became increasingly common and, under the influence of immigrant craftsmen woodcarvers and imported architectural pattern books, classical carved surrounds became popular. In the most cases patterns were used freely’ this gave rise to strong regional variations in the design of the principal entrance door.
The plantation houses of the Southern former America Colony’s have the strictest designs on their principle entrance plain or carved doors. Classical porches with richly carved Classic carved Classic design were popular throughout the country and were often added onto older houses. Door fittings became more refined with the skill and craftsmanship of the immigrant master Guild woodcarver
LATE GEORGIAN 1765-1811
The work of the master woodcarver carpenter of the Georgian period plain panelled or carved door changed very little in the late 18th century, but carved detailing was influenced by the prevailing Neo-classical taste.
The casing of the street (main entrance) plain panelled or carved door was modified by the over door fanlight . Early in the period fanlights are generally simple and rectangular, but later in the Georgian period the semi-circular or segmental type, which is particularly well adapted to filigree ornament, became increasingly fashionable.
Over door Fanlights were made in wood At the end of the century cast-metal tracery became very general. A Coade stone surround echoes the graceful sweep of the fanlight above some later doors. By contrast, other late door cases, porches and porticoes have an angular, Grecian simplicity
Typical street main entrance doors and internal doors remained six-panelled with carved doors in the finest homes. On the modest house door is deal (fir or pine) and has plain fielded panels; grand street doors may be carved oak. All were painted, black and sometimes dark green. Toward the end of the century the occasional bright blue door relieved the sombre streetscape.
Most internal doors are of painted deal, but the best are carved mahogany doors, with polished panels framed by incised ribs or a beaded carved moulding. Inlays of unusual woods such as ebony, holly and cherry are also used. The vogue for pained Pompeian and Etruscan decoration within the door panels ran from the 1770s onward.
REGENCY & EARLY 19TH CENTURY 1811-1837
The principal entrance front plain or carved door remains the main decorative feature on the façade of the English town house, the elements are usually confined within the limits of the plain or carved door void (opening), which is defined by a brick or stucco arch. Elaborate carved architectural door cases give way to plainer entrances in which carved pilasters or stylized console brackets flank the carved door.
Shallow porches, unfashionable since the mid-18th century, enjoyed a return to vogue: they are supported on scrolled brackets and often have classical details on the architrave.
Also popular were deeper porches with lead or copper roofs in “pagoda” forms. Fanlights/transom lights are less extravagant than those of the 1790s; by contrast, the plain or carved doors themselves are richer and more inventive, with reeded carved mouldings defining geometric panelling, or with studs, in imitation of Ancient Greek or Roman forms.
Most external principle entrance plain or carved doors were painted black or bronze-green.
Internal carved doors follow in the finest homes a four or six panel carved division, with crisp, attenuated carved panel mouldings . Surrounds are wide and shallow. In grand houses the doorcases sometimes have an architectural head in the Neo-Grecian taste or details in one of the “Fancy” styles of the day: Gothic, Chinoiserie or Egyptian.
A new impressive feature was the introduction of tall double plain panelled or carved doors into ordinary houses. These would divide front and back reception rooms on the ground floor and the floor above.