egg and dart

English

Noun

Roman egg and dart on a marble sarcophagus, 3rd century AD, Neues Museum, Berlin

egg and dart (plural eggs and darts)

1. (architecture) An ornamental device adorning the fundamental quarter-round, convex ovolo profile of moulding, consisting of alternating details on the face of the ovolo: typically an egg-shaped object alternating with a V-shaped element such as an arrow, anchor, or dart.
   • 2019, Niall Williams, This is Happiness, Bloomsbury (2020), page 203:

     There were various armchairs […] beneath a high ceiling with plaster egg and dart cornices, brocaded curtains and a blazing fire of sycamore logs.