History of Corbels – Where the Gargoyles Lurked
The term “corbel” was first used in its architectural application in the 15th century. Nevertheless, the actual supports date back further than that. Some sources claim the beginning of corbels to be somewhere in the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, era. They were also in use in B.C. era China.
The French in particular made exacting demands on what could and couldn’t be called a “corbel”. They said that it had to be perpendicular to both the wall and the surface that it was supporting. They went further than this even, claiming that a support was not allowed to be classed with corbels if its horizontal surface was not longer than its vertical edge running up the wall. The term itself derives from the Old French language via the Latin word corbellus, which means “appearing like the beak of a crow”. Continue reading “History of Corbels – Where the Gargoyles Lurked”