Illustrated Architecture Dictionary ......................... Illustrated FURNITURE Glossary

Egg-and-dart
Variations: Egg-and-anchor, Egg-and-arrow, and Egg-and-tongue

Erectheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece

Grace Millard Knox House

A decorative molding consisting of a series of bas-relief egg-shaped figures alternating with dart-shaped, anchor-shaped, or tongue-shaped figures.

An Ionic capital is usually enriched with egg-and-dart.

In the egg-and-anchor, egg-and-arrow, and egg-and-tongue moldings, the arrowhead ornament is varied in form.

Some historians contend this ornamental device is supposed to represent the duality of life (the egg) and death (the arrow).

Found in classical Greek and Roman architecture and derivatives, including Beaux Arts Classicism, Federal, Georgian Revival, Greek Revival, Neoclassicism, Renaissance Revival, Second Empire

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Examples from Buffalo:

• Lower illustration above:  Egg-and-arrow -  Grace Millard Knox House
  
  
• Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Example #1
  
  
• Albright-Knox Art Gallery - Example #2
  
  
• Schoellkopf-Vom Berge Manor
  
  
• St. John the Baptist Church
  
  
• Root Building
  
  
• Delaware Court Building
  
  
• Frederick G. Goellner Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Cemetery ........... Photo: facade
  
  
• Watson House - Buffalo Club
  
  
• Ellicott Square Building
  
  
• Red Jacket Apts.
  
  
• Buffalo Museum of Science
  
  
• Sattler Theatre

Other examples:

• Upper illustration above: Erectheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece
  
  
• Erectheion, Acropolis, Athens, Greece   Caryatid ornament
  
  
• Museum, Olympia, Greece
  
  
• Pantheon, Rome, Italy
  
  
• Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

• Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Milan, Italy