OurPhillyRow wrote:Thanks for the warm reception everyone. So happy to find an active community of old house lovers.
I will be having some electrical work done on our new/old house and one of the things I plan to add is a box in the parlor (living room) ceiling so I can add a medallion. After getting the keys to the house I quickly discovered that there was a medallion in the room in the past (evidence in photo). I am guessing it was for a gas chandelier and when they removed the gas fixtures, they also removed the medallion.
I would prefer a true plaster medallion, but could be convinced of a poly one if it is the right one. The room is about 12'x21' and I am sure the original medallion would have been elongated in shape. The house is from early 1850's and the casings are fairly simple ( I am guessing Greek Revival?). My armchair knowledge of historical interiors tells me that if there was originally a medallion, it would have been somewhat simple in design, but it the medallion was added later in the 19th century (perhaps when they installed the gas pipes) it may have been rather ornate.
I am partial to
this one.
Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas for sources?
When I was younger (and because I was of slight(er) build), it was usually my job, on restoration projects, to perch upon scaffolding and sand successive layers of ceiling paint to deduce the colours and designs hidden therein.
There are shortcuts, such as using a scalpel to remove a large enough cross-section sliver for chemical testing, chromatography, and microscopic photographs of the layers. But sanding can work if one has patience (and a tireless arm); one just has to be aware that colours and shades change over time so don't take what one finds at face value; it's usually darker than what one finds (except yellows are always richer and brighter).
Given this is a small room, you might want to give it a try after learning more about it. On one small project, a local restorationist teamed up with the local community college and paint store to have the project be a fieldwork classroom and the homeowner got a very low cost ceiling restoration. The caveat is that one has to verify there's already something there (ie. old photographs). A 3" wide x 6-8" long diagonal from a corner, to the center of the ceiling, will almost always reveal whether or not there's a design up there.
BTW, given the date of the home, there probably is a gasline still in the ceiling. A metal detector can distinguish between nails/screws and a pipe of any metal. Sometimes (not often) a very strong magnet can reveal iron pipe in a wall (by its gentle tug).
The roughness in your ceiling patch makes me suspect there might be other issues (ie. de-keying or lack of lathe) to fix before applying a medallion.
Once it up on the ceiling it is out of harms way so so unless you dust with a shovel... 
