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.
Various types of copings exist. A diagramatic explanation of copper copings is available.
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.
Famous quotes containing the word coping:
“Usually, when people talk about the “strength” of black women they are referring to the way in which they perceive black women coping with oppression. They ignore the reality that to be strong in the face of oppression is not the same as overcoming oppression, that endurance is not to be confused with transformation.”
—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)