Arch., etc. Also consol. [a. F. console (16th c.): Littré suggests that it is abbreviated from consolider to CONSOLIDATE.]
1. Arch. A variety of the bracket or corbel; applied more particularly to an ornamental chock of uniform breadth or face, its profile a straight-lined or scroll-shaped figure or foliage (usually an ogee curve terminating in a volute above and below), surmounted by a horizontal tablet; fixed upright against a wall or other surface and serving singly as a ledge to support something. Also, a similar figure carved in relief on a keystone, etc., for ornament, the horizontal tablet being frequently absent.
1706. Phillips, Console (Fr. in Masonry), a kind of Bracket or Shouldering-piece that juts out, and serves to support a Cornice, or to bear up Figures, Busts, Vessels and other Ornaments of the like Nature.
1754. Bp. Pococke, Trav. (1889), II. 139. The drawing-room, in which, on consoles, are the twelve Caesars.
1835. Beckford, Alcobaca & B., in Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), II. xiv. 159. The graceful arching of the roof, unsupported by console or column.
c. 1856. Archit. Publ. Soc. Dict., s.v. Bracket, The difference between a block, a cantilever, a console, a modillion, a mutule, and a tassel, depends chiefly upon the place in which each of these varieties of the bracket or corbel is employed. Ibid., Console … an ornament in any material which projects about half its height or less, for the purpose of carrying anything.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ., II. xv. § 124 (1875), 352. The bust that stands on the console.
b. The ‘carrier’ of a breech-loading gun, a kind of bracket-truss for supporting the breech-screw when withdrawn preparatory to loading.
1882. Notes on Constr. of Ordnance (U. S.), No. 1. 20 July, 1. If [the gas] meets with an obstacle, as the arm of the console, it will result in the breaking of the hinge that unites it to the gun.
1890. Engineering, 31 Jan., XLIX. 109/3.
c. Used in U.S. for a bracket on a wall for supporting machinery, and the like.
2. Short for console-table (see 4).
1840. L. S. Costello, Summer among Bocages, I. 376. A fine bed and marble-topped console.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., 2. Inlaid consoles and costly tables of ‘Marqueterie.’
3. A case or frame enclosing the claviers, draw-knobs, etc., of an organ; esp. when separate from the body of the instrument, as in organs with electric action.
[Originally bracketed out from the body of the organ, like the keyboard of a cottage piano.]
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 67. The term consol, or the French form console, is used in referring to the complete claviers, draw-knobs, etc., when set up separately at a distance from the body of the instrument … or more particularly where the electric action is used.
1885. Engineer, 28 Aug., 156/1. The console is placed almost in the centre of the screen [at Westminster Abbey].
1891. Discovery, 1 Feb., 6. This cable terminates … on the organist’s key desk or ‘console,’ as it is called. From this ‘console’ the current passes … to the various sounding parts of the instrument.
4. Comb. Console-table, a table supported by a fixed bracket against a wall; also, a movable side-table supported by consoles; console-mirror, a mirror fixed to the wall supported on a console.
1813. Examiner, 1 Feb., 71/2. Sofas, fauteuils, console-tables.
1863. J. Brown, Horæ Subs. (1882), 166. She caught sight of her own face in a console mirror.
1874. Contemp. Rev., Oct., 759. For chimney pieces or console tables such a mode of treatment may be legitimate.
1888. Sale & Exch., 13 Sept., 5/2. A fine old gilt console table with marble top … with splendid plate glass over. Total height about 9 ft.
