Chapter IX · : CONVENTIONAL ORNAMENTS DOG-TOOTH, BALL-FLOWER AND TUDOR-FLOWER

THE dog-tooth ornament is profusely used in rich thirteenth-century buildings, and is one of the clearest indications of date. It is often placed in the deep Early English mouldings as on the Galilee Porch at Ely (Pl. 104). It consists of a pyramid formed of four leaves, usually with a hole drilled where they divide. The example from Lincoln ambulatory doorway (Pl. 66) shows their character plainly. Sometimes they are curved, as in Hereford transept (Pl. 34), sometimes there are only two leaves, the other two being suppressed, as in the Lichfield triforium (Pl. 49). At Soham there are three leaves (Pl. 105). Sometimes they are elaborately enriched as at St Cross (Pl. 106) and Dunstable (Pl. 107). The most elaborate example of this sort of treatment is on the west doorway at Wells (Pl. 108).

The ball-flower ornament is to the fourteenth-century work what the dog-tooth is to the thirteenth. A window at Leominster (Pl. 109) shows this well. Sometimes, as on the screen at Exeter (Pl. 110) the ball-flowers are united by stalks. The character of the ornament is shown plainly in our example from Tewkesbury (Pl. 111). The ball is a bud form with three enclosing leaves, and there are three deep indentations between them.

The Tudor ornament fulfils a similar part in late Perpendicular work. It is well shown on the watching loft of the shrine at Oxford (Pl. 84), and in detail in our illustration from Purse Caundle (Pl. 112).