Gadrooning is a decorative motif consisting of convex curves in a series similar to what is found of some seashells or similar to flower petals.
In furniture and other decorative arts, it is an ornamental carved band of tapered, curving and sometimes alternating concave and convex sections, usually diverging obliquely either side of a central point, often with rounded ends vaguely reminiscent of flower petals. Gadrooning, derived from Roman sarcophagi and other antiquities like columns, was widely used during the Italian Renaissance, and in the classicisms phases of 18th- and early 19th-century design.
In European porcelain gadroons was first introduced at Spode in about 1824. The shape copied the elegant shapes in Georgian silver wares. It was particularly used for tea wares and elaborate dessert services.
In medieval European metalwork gadroons on circular dishes are often tapering, ending in a point on a central circular zone, and run diagonally across the surface in a spiral. Similar, but typically not tapered, designs were popular in rococo porcelain and metalwork. In Renaissance or neo-classical work they are normally thinner and straighter.
See also Flute
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