Cornice - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

CORNICE (Fr. corniche, Ital.. cornice), in architecture, the projection at the top of a wall, which is provided to throw off the rain water from the roof, beyond the face of the building. As employed in classic architecture it forms the upper part of the entablature of an order, and is there subdivided into bed mould, corona and cymatium. The term is also ger..erally applied to any moulding projection which crowns the feature to which it is attached; thus doors and windows, internally as well as externally, have each their cornice, and the same applies to pieces of furniture (see also Masonry).