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coffer
(redirected from coffers)

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coffer

Enlarge picture
Baroque coffered ceiling of the cupola of S. Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome, designed by …
(credit: SCALA—Art Reference/EB Inc.)
In architecture, a square or polygonal ornamental sunken panel used in a series as decoration for a ceiling or vault. Coffers were probably originally formed by wooden beams crossing one another to produce a grid. The earliest surviving examples were made of stone by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Coffering was revived in the Renaissance and was common in Baroque and Neoclassical architecture.

coffer
1. an ornamental sunken panel in a ceiling, dome, etc.
2. a watertight box or chamber
3. 
a. short for cofferdam
b. a recessed panel in a concrete, metal, or timber soffit


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