Coping (architecture)

For the method of joining wood and moldings at right angles, see Coping (joinery).

A horizontal row of granite coping can be seen projecting beyond the wall between the granite arches and the concrete deck of the Canton Viaduct.

Coping (from cope, Latin capa), consists of the capping or covering of a wall.

A splayed or wedge coping slopes in a single direction; a saddle coping slopes to either side of a central high point.

A coping may consist of stone, brick, tile, slate, metal, wood or thatch. In all cases it should be weathered to throw off the water.

In Romanesque work copings appeared plain and flat, and projected over the wall with a throating to form a drip. In later work a steep slope was given to the weathering (mainly on the outer side), and began at the top with an astragal; in the Decorated style there were two or three sets off; and in the later Perpendicular Period these assumed a wavy section, and the coping mouldings continued round the sides, as well as at top and bottom, mitreing at the angles, as in many of the colleges at Oxford.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Directory of Coping Manufacturers