Mouldings in a modest Regency house

[Salopian]

My wife and I are considering buying a modest (three bedrooms) double-fronted Regency house, which is in good repair and hasn't been structurally altered. However, it doesn't have any mouldings (so no ceiling roses, dado rails or cornices). I haven't been able to date the house very accurately but my guess is 1790-1820. I don't believe the house has ever had to be fully restored. It still has 5 original fireplaces (plus two later ones in the sitting room and dining room) and has beautiful oak floors downstairs that also look original.

I have been trying to research what sort of mouldings would have been typical for a small, modest late Georgian house. I have read the Georgian Group's guidance leaflets, the Georgian Group Book of the Georgian House and Small Georgian Houses and Their Details. The latter sounded a lot more promising than it turned out to be as "small" turns out to mean smaller than Attingham Park not what I think of as small. They were helpful in understanding what type of mouldings were popular in larger, grander houses of the period but very little of the architectural literature focuses on smaller houses.

The current owner, who has only owned the house for 15 years, is sceptical as to whether it ever had any mouldings but it seems highly unlikely to me that a house (not a cottage or workshop) would have been wholly missing any mouldings. I appreciate that any mouldings would have to be fairly small and simple to be appropriate to the house but the rooms look rather blank without cornices to me.

Are there any other useful sources that might help?

If any of you have any thoughts to share on the topic, I would welcome your comments. If you have a modest Georgian/Regency house and have restored any mouldings or were lucky enough not to have had to, I'd love to know a bit more about your house.

 

[Drayton]

Mine's an 1840 terrace house, that sort of style, built by a syndicate of local businessmen to rent out. As built 4 floors - basement (kitchen and scullery), 2 ground floor rooms, 3 first floor bedrooms, 3 'attic' bedrooms. Plaster cornice (plus a picture rail) in the front room. The 60s ceiling paper is doing a good job of keeping the plaster in place so I haven't investigated whether there was originally a rose. Not a trace of anything in any other room, notveven a picture rail, no matter how carefully you peer when you strip a wall back. They do seem bare, specially given the high ground floor ceilings; the first floor bedrooms are lower but still a good height.

 

[Salopian]

It is possible that only the sitting room, dining room and hall had them or perhaps the owner is right. I do think I can see the shadow of a dado at the appropriate height on the sitting room wall but not anywhere else. I doubt that any of the interior plasterwork is original. It's not perfect by any means but it looks too even to be original.

The house is Grade 2 listed so I'd probably have to apply for LBC anyway before I do anything. Houses of a similar age to this one are fairly common in the area so I should probably have a discreet glimpse at other people's walls as I stroll past.