david's dissertation

THE MELOCCO BROTHERS

Marble and Mosaic Workers 1908-1961

by David Melocco 1987

OUTLINE TO DISSERTATION

“The Melocco Brothers Marble and Mosaic Workers 1908-1961”

Introduction

History of the Melocco family & company in Australia

Description and documentation of four major examples of their work:

• Commonwealth Savings Bank, Martin Place, Sydney

• State Theatre, Market Street, Sydney

• Foyer of the State Library of New South Wales, Macquarie Street Sydney

• Crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney

Conclusion

Appendix

• The Wombeyan marble quarry

• History and present cutting methods

• Basic mosaic techniques

• History of the development of mosaics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks are especially due to Mr John Melocco, Peter Melocco’s son. Through conversation with him, my awareness of the work of Melocco Brothers was born.

I am also most grateful to Don Godden, my university supervisor for this dissertation, whose guidance helped greatly to formulate this text.

I must also thank Mr Aldo Rossi and Mr Franco Colussi who showed me the process and craft of mosaic work.

Other people to whom I am grateful for their assistance are: JD Gadston, historian; Mr Ron McEwan, Property Manager of Greater Union Theatres; John Cummings, St Mary's Cathedral Administrator; Mr Barry McGregor of the Department of Housing and Construction and Mr Arns, Archivist, St Patrick’s College, Manly.

I must thank the Reserve Bank for supplying photographs of the Commonwealth Savings Bank, Martin Place, at a time when it was impossible to take photos myself due to restoration work.

My special thanks go to my mother for her tireless typing efforts and to my father for his support, enthusiasm and grammatical criticism.

Finally I thank my grandfather whom I never knew but whose craft I am beginning to understand.

INTRODUCTION

This paper is only concerned with the decorative marble works of the Melocco Bros between 1908 and 1961. While they did branch out into road construction and ready mixed concrete, it is their work in mosaic, terrazzo inlay, scagliola and marble panelling for which they are most noted.

During research for this project, it came to my attention that very little hard evidence existed on the company and the methods they used. Also, documentation of existing examples of their work is sadly lacking. This is largely because the elder Melocco brothers and the men who worked with them were craftsmen and artists who felt that documentation of the processes of their work was unnecessary — the final product was all that was needed.

Peter Melocco did keep a library in a private studio room at the Melocco factory in Booth St, Annandale, but unfortunately a fire destroyed much of this material in 1971.

For these reasons, and more, it has been necessary for me to glean much information from interviews with relevant people. Relatives and past employees of Melocco Bros have been most helpful.

Also, I must note that Meloccos’ completed many significant works in major public buildings and institutions all over Australia and also completed the altar floor in Christchurch Cathedral, New Zealand. However I feel it necessary to include only a small number of their major works for closer study.

All these examples can be found in Sydney, which was the home of the Melocco family and their factory, and represent a good cross section of their range and abilities within the decorative marble medium.

A gratifying point is that practically all the Melocco Bros most significant works are still intact and in place; this is due to the fact that most of their commissions were for major public buildings which have been preserved due to their cultural significance and public appeal.

I would like to think that some of this significance and appeal is due to the Melocco Bros contribution to these great buildings.

This introduction should also note that the company name has now changed from Melocco Bros Pty Ltd. To Melocco Limited and is no longer a family concern, but a subsidiary of Boral Industries. They are still a major supplier of marble for buildings but no longer concern themselves with the finer crafts of mosaics and terrazzo inlays. (In 1999, Boral closed its Sydney plant. In 2000, there was a management buy-out in Melbourne. The company was renamed Melocco Stone and in December 2000 the Sydney office was reopened at the original address of 1 Booth Street, Annandale.)

HISTORY OF MELOCCO BROS PTY LTD

The principals of the company were the three brothers Peter, Anthony and Galliano. All three had different roles to play in the structure of the company according to their different skills.

The Brothers:

Peter was the head of the company, eldest brother, the artist, businessman and visionary.

Anthony (my grandfather) was the craftsman. Concerned mainly with the methods of doing the work, he was primarily responsible for perfecting the scagliola process.

Galliano, the youngest brother, concentrated on the construction side of the company, road construction and ready mixed concrete.

Peter was the first to come to Australia, arriving in Sydney on the 6th May 1908. The family comes from a village called Toppo in the province of Friuli, Northern Italy.

Peter’s training, as a mosaic artist and marble worker began at the Copper Union in New York. The union was a technical college that concentrated on trades and crafts related to the building industry, and was probably the first of its kind.

Anthony and Galliano arrived in Australia in June of 1910. Galliano was still a school student but Anthony, who trained as a mosaic worker in Paris, went into business with Peter.

Galliano trained as a mechanical engineer and did not take any interest in the craft-based work of the company. He went to sea with the Merchant Navy and did not become active in the company until the late 1920s.


	Galli in Naval Uniform

During his first three to four months in Sydney, Peter worked as a tile layer for GE Crane & Sons. He took his first rented shop in October of 1908 at 16 Regent Street, Redfern.

Three years later, larger premises on Parramatta Road, Forest Lodge, near Ross Street, opposite the University, were taken due to increase in business. This shop had a showroom plus adequate space to lay out mosaic stencils etc.

Both these shops were rented and it was not until 1919 that they purchased their own premises in Booth Street, Annandale, formerly the property of Moodie Bros, Booth Street, with some expansions across the road, remained the firm’s address until they sold the business to BMI in 1961.


I Booth St, Annandale	1 Booth St Annandale in the early 1920's


1 Booth St 1949	1 Booth St 1949 with Mario's Son


1 Booth St 1951	1 Booth St 1958

At the time, there were no mosaic workers in New South Wales. There were several companies within the building industry who undertook marble work but none had any experience in the mosaic craft. These companies were: Loveridge and Hudson, which later amalgamated with Melocco Bros under Blue Metal Industries; Anthony Horderns, the retail chain which had a subsidiary company that supplied and installed marble; Mascot Granite and Port Jackson Marble.

In Melbourne, a company called de Marco Bros was introducing mosaic work on a similar scale to Melocco Bros in Sydney.

The first five years of this company’s existence was dominated by work on bathrooms around the eastern suburbs. They introduced terrazzo to Australia and it became popular as a bathroom material.

Terrazzo, which gains its name from the Italian ”terrazza“ (terrace) has been defined as:

“A composition material, placed in situ or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble chips, seeded or unseeded, with a binder of matrix that is cementitous, non-cementitous or a combination of both. The terrazzo is placed, cured and then ground and polished or otherwise finished.” — The Stone and Terrazzo Association of NSW Technical Data Handbook.

Different effects can be gained from combining varieties of coloured marble and varying the chip sizes. The binder is usually of Portland cement. Coloured pigments are mixed into the cement to create a clear, contrasting background to the marble chips. In recent examples of terrazzo, other decorative elements, such as coloured glass, have been included as highlights.

It was during its first five years that the company undertook its first major church work. From 1908-1961 church commissions were a major part of the company’s business.

When Peter Melocco came to Australia, he was asked to submit a design for the alter of the Chapel of Irish Saints in the eastern wing of St Mary’s Cathedral. Cardinal Moran thought Peter a bit young but was impressed by him. He added to the design by having a few shamrocks included. This floor was not completed until after Anthony’s arrival in 1910.

Two other early jobs were the foyer at Kodak House and the floor of the Tattersals Club in Elizabeth Street Sydney. (now demolished)

Kodak House was a black and white marble mosaic, about 20 square metres in size. It was later removed and preserved on show at the Melocco Bros Booth Street factory. (Its present whereabouts are unknown.)

The work in the Tattersals Club was mainly in the hallways and consists of mosaic borders in the Grecian style with a centre strip of terrazzo. For these early jobs, all the polishing and grinding was done with hand tools.

During these early years, Anthony Horderns had to cut all the marble because Melocco Bros owned no machinery. Anthony Horderns sold much of their equipment to Melocco Bros in 1913 when they left the marble industry.

Inventory of sales would have included:

• 2 gang saws

• 1 gantry crane

• carborundum saw (disc saw)

• several polishing machines, all powered by individual electric motors.

The Twenties

It was during the 1920s that the move to Booth Street occurred. Due to a general building boom, the Melocco Bros unique skills were much sought after, requiring the larger work space.

Banks and movie theatres became the dominant form of work in the 1920s, keeping between 100 and 200 men working for the company.

Melocco Bros worked on most of the large banks in Martin Place. These included:

• Government Savings Bank (now the Commonwealth Bank)

• Bank of New South Wales

• Rural Bank

• MLC House

• Prudential Building

The Government Savings Bank was the most extensive of the building works. It was for this project that Peter and Tony resurrected the old Italian technique of scagliola (an imitation marble made of cement). Opened in 1928, the building recently underwent extensive restoration.

A detailed discussion on the Government Savings Bank will be included in a following chapter.

The 1920s was the period when many of Sydney’s great picture palaces were built — theatres like the Prince Edward, the Plaza, the Wintergarden, Rose Bay, and the State Theatre. There were about a dozen other city theatres decorated in marble by the Melocco Bros. The State Theatre was an extravagant piece of work, which combined marble, terrazzo, mosaic and scagliola to create one of the most fantastic theatres in Australia.

Many other works were completed during the 1920s, including the War Memorial in Hyde Park. Melocco Bros cut and layed all the marble work on the interior of the memorial, as well as making and installing all the brass stars on the domed ceiling. Metal work was not the company’s forte but they had a loose policy, it seems, to try anything.

They also completed marble work for the Department of Motor Transport (cnr Bridge and Macquarie Streets) and David Jones and Farmers Department stores in the city.

The Thirties

During the Depression, Galliano became much more active in the firm. Due to his more practical background, he built up the concrete and construction side of the company. It was through concrete and road work that Melocco Bros was able to keep its men working and the company alive through the 1930s depression.

Melocco Bros was the first private company to use mechanical cement mixers. The half cubic yard Smith Mixer was used in the early twenties for the Dental Hospital building in Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

During the thirties “composite stone” was developed. This was a combination of cement, dye and marble-stone chips made up into pre-cast panels and used as a facing on many Sydney buildings, such as the pink panelling on the old Rural Bank and the building on the corner of King and York Streets.

World War II to 1961

Much of the demand for terrazzo work fell away until the fifties, while the concrete work increased. During this period, Anthony (Tony) became ill and resigned from the firm. He died in 1948 and with him went much of the skill and experience gained over many years, unfortunately little of this skill was documented. Even so three major works in terrazzo mosaic were completed during and after the war.

The Interstate Booking Office, now the Cocktail Lounge at Central Railway, includes travertine counters, a composite stone frieze and a marble and terrazzo floor mural. The mural consists of a white marble map of Australia, showing major rail links, over a terrazzo checkerboard pattern and a series of wavy dissecting strips flanked by the emblems of the six states of Australia.

Another major work was the vestibule of the State Library of New South Wales, featuring a marble and terrazzo inlay reproduction of Tasman’s map.

The principal work of Melocco Bros and Peter Melocco’s masterpiece was the crypt of St Mary's Cathedral. This terrazzo inlay floor was completed over a period stretching from 1945 to 1958. The design was in the shape of a Celtic cross done in consultation with the late Rev Dr W Leonard. This was the last great work of Peter Melocco.

The company was sold in 1961, after Peter died, to Blue Metal Industries, who amalgamated it with Loveridge and Hudson, another marble company. When the company was reformed, the concrete side of the business was dropped, leaving only the finishing trades. Due to reasons of economy and lack of experience, the new company did not continue the tradition of creating individual terrazzo and mosaic works that Peter Melocco established with the All Saints Altar in 1910, but instead concentrated on bulk cutting and supplying of marble and composite stone for general building work.

THE COMMONWEALTH SAVINGS BANK OF AUSTRALIA

(formerly the Government Savings Bank of NSW)

Martin Place, Sydney

• Foundation stone set 13th March 1922

• Building opened 13th December 1928

• Architects: HE Ross and H Ruskin Rowe

• Principal contractor: Concrete Construction Limited

• Covers an area of 99924 square metres

At a cost of approximately two million pounds (at the time) the Government Savings Bank was one of the most important buildings to be erected during the 1920s. The major role of the Melocco Bros in the building was to clad the interior of the banking chamber and other public areas of the bank with marble and imitation marble work called scagliola.

Scagliola

Within the banking chamber, the face slabs on the walls and the 37 round columns are covered in Vert Antique Scagliola (green with a white vein). It was the architects, Ross & Rowe, who first suggested the use of scagliola in the banking chamber. It seems the alternative of using real marble was impractical and aesthetically displeasing.

“The alternative to scagliola is to encase the columns in semi-cylindrical drums cut out of solid marble, a very expensive and unsatisfactory treatment as under this system the columns are never true and symmetrical, and reveal vertical joints in the columns which are objectionable in every way. Therefore, the system of marble casing is more expensive and is architecturally unsound.” — quote from a letter to Government Savings Bank by Ruskin Rowe.

The craft of scagliola had never previously been used in Australia. Peter Melocco went to Italy in 1926 in search of skilled craftsmen but found that the art had been lost. However, he did learn the basic recipe.

A marble worker, who had experience with scagliola, was brought out from America. He showed Peter and Anthony the basic principles of scagliola but his work was not up to their standard. He returned home and Anthony set about perfecting the process by trial and error.

The name “scagliola” is Italian and refers to the chips and splinters of marble which are used in its production. This method flourished during the Renaissance. Guido Sassi of Lombardy has been credited with its discovery but it was probably more of a rediscovery of a process used by the ancient Egyptians to line the walls of their tombs and also by the Moors to decorate their tombs.

Scagliola is a mixture of several ingredients. The main portion is “Keen’s cement” (about 75%) while the remaining 25% consists of glue, colour and resin. Keen’s cement is an exceptionally fine and dense plaster that does not set too quickly. It allows the scagliola worker enough time to work the mixture whilst in dough form and it sets hard enough not to wear away during the polishing process. Keen’s cement was first used to render hospital walls but is now out of production.

The mixing is all done by hand, the more the doughy mixture is kneaded the closer in visual texture the final pattern becomes. The mixture is placed on rubber sheets and rolled out until it is about 3/8 inch thick. The veining is achieved by dunking some coarse threads into a soft mix; the threads are then laid across the rubber sheets before the scag is layed out. When lifted off, the threads leave trails of pigment behind which appear identical to the veining in marble. Before the scagliola sets, it is painted with glue and folded around the columns or onto walls in sections. The joints are then filled in with the same material.

The polishing of scagliola columns is a long process. The surface must be as smooth as glass because any small imperfections will show when it is polished. Minute air bubbles can leave tiny chinks in the surface, which are stopped with a paste of plaster using the background colour. The paste is rubbed over the wetted columns and scraped away with a flat tool. This is repeated several times and, in between the stopping, the surface is stoned, which means ground smooth with a carborundum stone and water. Taking off the muddy top layers reveals the crisper patterning beneath.

Even after stopping and stoning, scagliola looks dull, the pattern murky and indistinct. Several weeks later, when it is completely dry, two to three coats of linseed oil, thin enough to be completely absorbed, are applied. The oil will harden the plaster and, once the last coat has soaked in and dried, the surface is polished with very fine wet and dry paper. When this is done, the matt colour gives way to an extremely polished surface.

At the request of Melocco Bros, private lockup sheds were set up on the site of the Government Savings Bank. Hessian sacking was erected around the columns to preserve the method that Anthony laboured over as a Melocco Bros secret.

This attitude, while understandable at the time, caused great problems for the Department of Housing and Construction which restored the building. The scagliola had become drummy in places. This problem was resolved by injecting resin behind the drummy area. Craftsmen from Poland were imported for this. The key to the mixture — Keen’s cement, — is no longer manufactured, so the Polish workmen developed a new alternative that Barry McGregor, the government architect, found satisfactory.

Scagliola can also be found on the columns of the Metropolitan Water Board building and the State Theatre. To the untrained eye it is very difficult to tell the difference between scagliola and real marble. The only sure way to tell is by touch: scagliola, made from cement not stone, is not as cold as true marble.

Apart from scagliola work, the interior of the bank holds an impressive variety of marble types and mosaics used to clad its walls and for use in benches and counter tops.

The area decorated with the marble can be divided into three sections:

• The Banking Chamber

• The Grand Hall

• Safe deposit vaults

The Banking Chamber

Floor

4.5 square metre tiles — Sicilian White

Borders — Belgian Black

Patio mates — Belgian Dove & King Edward Red

Walls

Skirtings — Blue Belge

Columns — Mudgee Green

Face slabs — Vert Antique Scagliola

Windows

Gothic arches — Cudgegong

Counters

Panels — Sienna Cudgegong

Necking & capping — Caleula

Stairway to Castlereagh Street

Walls — King Edward Red

Skirting & scrolled capping — Blue Belge

Balustrade and columns — Sienna and Ivory Cudgegong

The Grand Hall

Floor

Tiles — Sicilian White

Borders — Blue Belge

Lift fronts

Castlereagh Street —Cream Botticino, Vert Antique

Walls and columns — Sienna Cudgegong

Elizabeth Street — Caleula

Walls and columns — Blue Ball Cudgegong

Recesses

Wall panels — Mudgee Green

Central Walls

Between lifts — Caleula

Skirtings — Blue Ball Cudgegong

Memorial

Gothic arch — Sienna Cudgegong

Base and reveals — Ivory Cudgegong

Panel — King Edward Red

Architrave to banking chamber doorway — Sienna Cudgegong

Safe Deposit Vaults

Lobby

Wall facing — Ivory Cudgegong

Cornice — Blue Bell Cudgegong

Floor

Tiles — Sicilian White

Skirting — Vert Antique

Walls & scrolled capping — Light Sienna Cudgegong

Writing Table

Base — Sienna Cudgegong

Pockets — Blue Ball Cudgegong

Top — Botticino

Architrave to door and counter trim panels — King Edward Red

Origins

The King Edward Red, Mudgee Green, Caleula and Cudgegong marble varieties are from the Mudgee, Bathurst and Canberra districts. The Blue Belge, Dove and Black are from Belgium. Sicilian White, Vert Antique and Botticino are from Italy.

At present the Bank is undergoing extensive restoration and alterations to the cost of 50 million dollars and is due to re-open in late 1989.


Main Banking Chamber	Martin Place Entry

Banking Counters	Behind the counters

Staircase to Safe Deposit Vault	Counters

Staircase Entry to office floors	Staircase to Safe Deposit Vaults

Interior of Safety Deposit Vaults

INTERIOR OF THE STATE THEATRE

The 1920s was the time when most of the great picture palaces of Sydney were built.

The State Theatre opened on Friday June 7th 1929 and was the most flamboyant and extravagant of them all. The architect for the theatre was Henry E White, who took much influence from John Eberson, the celebrated American theatrical architect. The project was backed by Union Theatres and the builder was James Porter and Sons Ltd.

Melocco Bros did worked in practically all the major theatres built at this time but, in the State Theatre, their work was the most extensive. It runs from the entrance foyer through a wide hall with a low ceiling, called the Empire Room, to a huge rotunda which gives access to the stalls, dress circle and gallery levels.

The entrance foyer features a mosaic marble floor with a strong geometric design. An intricate and colourful border, with panels showing the State Theatre’s emblem, surrounds a mosaic floor of coarse white and brown marble tesserae pieces which, in turn, surrounds a more intricate panel of mosaic which has, as its centre, an illuminated glass clock.

This pattern of elaborately detailed borders and centre pieces, with the remaining floor area filled with coarse mosaic treatment, continues through to the Empire Room which houses the kiosk and on to the main rotunda floor which has, as its central piece, a large circular medallion depicting St George on a white horse.

The rotunda is an 80ft-high domed room with two magnificent staircases running up to the balustrade area that services the gallery level of the auditorium.

A richly veined Sienna marble was used to finish the stairs and the turned balusters, giving an air of great sumptuousness. Above the stairs are more panels of white veined marble, highlighted by columns of Vert Antique Scagliola, similar to the columns in the Government Savings Bank in Martin Place, which was opened only six months previous to the State Theatre.

The excesses of the State Theatre are unique in Australia. Melocco Bros made an integral contribution to this great theatrical experience.

The theatre has been completely restored due to a heritage order being placed on the site by the National Trust in 1973 and “green band” being placed on the demolition of the building by the Builders’ Labourers Federation.


State Theatre Entry Foyer	Detail at Entry

Grand Staircase	Main Vestibule

Looking back to entry	Eastern Staircase

MOSAIC OF THE TASMAN’S MAP

In the vestibule of the State Library one of Melocco Bros greatest works can be found.

Constructed in 1941, it reproduces a decorated 17th Century hand-drawn map showing the discoveries of Abel Jansoon Tasman during voyages in 1642 and 1644.

The map also illustrates discoveries of earlier navigators. The Tasman Map is generally known as the Bonaparte Tasman Map, after Prince Roland Bonaparte, a famous 19th Century French traveller and authority on geography, who once owned it. In 1933, it was presented by his heir, the Princess George of Greece, to the Mitchell Library.

On the map, the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam and the date 1644 appear just below the tropic of Capricorn. Superimposed in the upper left hand corner and inset drawn to half the scale of the main map are the tracks of the ships from Botavia in 1642.

The mosaic map measures approximately 4 x 5.5 metres in a white/cream marble sectioned off along the grid lines of the original map. It is bordered with a continuous strip of red and yellow marble tesserae (small pieces of marble used in traditional mosaics).

The map is surrounded by a pattern of waved green lines on a background of cream with green flecks, all done with terrazzo. Set into this are the coat of arms of the House of Nassau, two 17th Century ships on the left and right of the map, plus cherubs at each corner of the map.

At the head of the map is a title of most intricate detail and in between the columns that divide the vestibule and corridor are panels containing compass symbols. The decorative wave pattern continues along the corridor.

All the work surrounding the map was done in terrazzo. The terrazzo was poured between brass divider strips, which were used as a stencil and acted as definition of the design in the final product.

Much of this work would have been done at the factory and brought to the site in panels. Melocco Bros also did the marble work on the stairs but at a later date.


Mitchell Library Entry Floor Showing "Tasman's Map"

Detail of Title	Decorative Ship

Ships on as shown on the map	Detail showing cherub

Map detail showing scale rule	Detail at entry

Detail of ship

CRYPT OF ST MARY’S CATHEDRAL

Terrazzo Mosaic Floor

Sydney

The floor of the Crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral lies six metres below the main body of the cathedral. The crypt runs some 46 metres in length (as far as the main entrance to the transepts) and is 24 metres wide.

The crypt can be classed as Peter Melocco’s master work. The last major project he completed and by far the most ambitious, it was commissioned by the late Archbishop Gilroy and produced, in part, using a grant from the O’Neil family, who were the majority share holders in Blue Metal Industries and business associates of the Melocco brothers. The design of the floor was created in collaboration with the Reverend Dr W Leonard, a noted theologian from St Patrick’s College, Manly.

There are two major influences in the artistry of Peter Melocco that are very apparent in the crypt floor. The first is the marble inlay floor of the Cathedral of Sienna, which dates back to the 1300s and is a pavement consisting of panels of black and white marble. The second major influence is the Book of Kells, an ancient Celtic manuscript which contains much pattern work that is easily recognised in the floor of the crypt. This type of pattern work was a diagrammatic representation of the twisted leather rope made by the Celts.

The crypt can be divided into two sections: the sanctuary (the floor of which was completed between 1945 and 1948) and the main body of the crypt (the floor of which was completed between 1950 and 1958).

The Sanctuary

On the floor of the sanctuary are the slabs covering the graves of the bishops of Sydney. Each slab contains marble inlay of great detail. The general pattern is based around the lettering of the bishop’s titles and details.

Running from east to west are the graves of Bishop Davis, Archbishop Polding, Archbishop Vaughan, Cardinal Gilroy and Cardinal Moran. The graves of three pioneer priests — Daniel Power, John Joseph Therry and John McEnroe — are in the alcove on the left of the altar.

Between these graves lie seven medallions depicting Christian virtue and their respective opposites, created in a style very similar to the monochromatic floor the Cathedral of Sienna. In this example, Peter Melocco enhances the medallions with colour.

Running east-west the medallions represent:

Hope — emblems of ploughing and sowing.

Despair is a dejected figure beneath.

Justice — a female figure holding the scales that weigh merit and demerit.

Corruption — the reverse is curiously figured.

Temperance is a figure using water, music and wine in a proper way.

Excess — is a drunken man.

Charity — depicted in three different ways.

Selfishness — is a miser counting his money.

Fortitude is a mother accepting the death of her son.

Discouragement — a broken woman, weeping and mourning.

Faith & Infidelity surround a figure representing temptation. This medallion is laid in the shape of a Celtic cross using richly veined Australian marble.

Prudence is a figure of a woman meditating, holding an instrument of measure.

Folly is a man on a branch of a tree sawing the branch between himself and the trunk.

The Main Body of the Crypt

The floor decoration is in the shape of a huge Celtic cross, which extends lengthwise through the crypt, from the sanctuary to the door under the cathedral steps. It traverses the Chapel of Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the eastern side to the corresponding point on the west.

The concept of the design was to depict the six days of creation in the five large medallions, at the head, foot, centre, left and right of the cross. The rest of the cross is filled with Celtic decoration and a series of 18 smaller medallions illustrating titles of the Immaculate Mother of God, to whom the Cathedral is dedicated.

The Medallions

The first day of creation is depicted showing the separation of light and darkness by radiating bands of colour. Angels surround this circular medallion set in a large square.

The central and largest medallion illustrates the fourth day of creation — the creation of the sun and the moon in a graduation of colour from white through yellow to dark blue.

At the base of the cross, the medallion represents the creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day. While some of the line work of the figures is poor, the whole has great splendour of colour.

The left arm of the cross is occupied by a large medallion depicting the creation of birds and fish on the fifth day of creation.

At the end of the right arm of the cross is the medallion that represents the third day of creation, the divisions of land and water and the beginning of plant life.

Titles of the Immaculate Mother of God

The eighteen smaller medallions use other biblical symbols to help illustrate the different titles. For example, the last small medallion on the left arm next to the “Third Day of Creation” shows the title, “Ark of the Covenant,” depicted as the Old Testament Ark with its Tables of the Law and the overshadowing cherubim.

On the opposite arm, the title “Tower of David” refers to Mary as an “Impregnable Fortress” and the Throne of Solomon with the Book of Wisdom enthroned upon it is a symbol of Mary as “Seat of Wisdom”.

It can be noticed, when viewing the floor, that there is a distinct contrast in style between the large medallions and the rest of the floor.

The large medallions that depict the six days of creation and the medallions in the sanctuary have a classical nature and show direct influence from the floor in the Cathedral of Sienna. The smaller medallions and the patternwork in between are of Celtic influence. This contrast in style is an asset that adds to the floor’s unique quality.

At the end of this great work, Peter’s health had deteriorated and he had to be taken into the crypt in a wheelchair.

Further plans for the crypt were not completed. Peter’s intention to decorate the columns and vaulted ceiling with mosaics were not fulfilled. A large mosaic mural was planned for the wall behind the Polding Altar and a cartoon was completed by the artist, James Gleeson, picturing the Day of Judgement. This was later rediscovered at the Melocco factory and is on display at Melocco Limited’s new premises. (This cartoon, along with a number of Gleeson’s pencil sketches for the crypt floor are now part of the St Mary’s Cathedral archive.)

Peter’s floor gained him recognition worldwide and awareness by the United States’ National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association.

Photographs of the Mosaic Floor of the Crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney


*Main Body* *- Overall view of the Crypt looking towards the Sanctuary]*

*Mosaic marble tomb stone of Cardinal Gilroy*	*Medallion depicting Charity and Selfishness*

*Head of the Cross, the separation of light and darkness*	*Central medallion ñ the creation of the Sun and the Moon*

*Base of the Cross, The Creation of Man (Adam and Eve)*	*End of the Right Arm The Division of Land and Water*

*View of cross-arm ñ Left Arm Medallion in far front, The Creation of Birds and Fish*	*Detail: Birds and Grapes*

*Detail: Loaves and Fishes*	*Medallion depicting a Pelican feeding its young*

*One of the titles of The Immaculate Mother of God “Mediatress of all Graces”*	*One of the titles of the Immaculate Mother of God “Sear of the Sea”*

CONCLUSION

Melocco Brothers was a unique company in the history of Australian building and related crafts. In the 1920s, the company grew quite large during heady economic times. It diversified during the depression to stay alive and during the post-war period created only a few major artistic works, concentrating mostly on supplying and installing marble in slab.

The style of work they did, particularly mosaic and scagliola, will never be seen again because of their dependence on a large labour input. It is now economically impossible for contemporary building projects to include such craftsmanship on a large scale.

While there are still a few mosaic workers in Australia doing work in a traditional sense, the contribution of Melocco Bros to the Sydney building environment is part of our heritage and will never be repeated.

APPENDIX 1

The Wombean Marble Mine

The first man to discover the marble at Wombean was Colin Henry Arnold in 1936.

Four hundred million years ago, a volcanic eruption ripped through the earth’s crust. Limestone, which is the produce of decaying marine life on ancient coral reefs (calcium carbonate cements into limestone), was cooked. This re-crystallised into a mosaic of white calcite under the intense heat and pressure of the molten lava.

The patterns that are distinctive to all different types of marble depend on the impurities present in the original limestone. In much the same way, this process was repeated around the world.

In 1936, Peter Melocco was importing much of his marble. He asked Colin Arnold to search for good marble that could be quarried locally. At first, there was no cutting machinery for the quarry.

“We had no cutting machinery so we only quarried boulders. We used to dig around them to remove all the mud and debris, cut a series of shallow holes along the top of the rock and fill them with gelignite. It was mostly pick and shovel work and Col paid us one pound per cubic foot of marble to make sure we got our blocks square.” — Quote from Keith Eastham who worked for Arnold for 11 years (Australian Geographic, No 5 January-March 1987).

Due to a steady demand for the marble by Melocco Bros in Sydney, Arnold set up gangsaws at Welby, just outside Mittagong, to cut the blocks into slabs. Arnold sold the quarry to Melocco Bros in 1964 for 120,000 pounds.

Today the marble is cut using a power driven wire saw. The wire saw is a 1000-metre loop of steel wire driven by a 25-horsepower diesel engine through a series of pulleys. Vertical holes are drilled through the marble and the wire is then fed between two penetrating machines set over the holes. As the wire runs between the machines, it cuts into the marble using sand and water as an abrasive.

Wombeyan marble is not cheap. There is a high wastage factor due to heavy fault lines in the marble — half is lost at site and 50% of what remains is lost during cutting and polishing. However, the marble is still in high demand due to its unique character and veiny quality. (Due to evironmental concerns regarding the impact of quarrying on the Wombeyan Caves, Wombeyan marble ceased being quarried in 1998.)

APPENDIX 2

Basic Marble Techniques

Described by Aldo Rossi and Franco Colussi, 2nd April 1987

There are six basic steps to creating a traditional mosaic. While this process can be described quite briefly, the actual time involved in creating a mosaic is enormous. It is a labour intensive craft requiring much concentration and patience.

A traditional mosaic is made of small pieces of marble, glass or other stone — the combination is called tesserae. This is not to be confused with a terrazzo mosaic, such as can be found on the floor of the crypt of St Mary’s Cathedral, a process developed by Peter Melocco using panels of different coloured terrazzo, giving a much sm