FINIAL, an ornament, generally carved to resemble foliage, which forms the termi nation of pinnacles, gables, spires, and other portions of Gothic architecture. There are traces of foliated terminations, both in stone and metal, on the pediments of classic buildings (see ACROTERION), but it was not till the 12th c. that the F. proper was intro duced. During the latter part of that c. and the whole of the 13th c., finials of the most perfect form and of infinite variety were used as the crowning ornaments of every salient point in the buildings of the period. The architects of the 14th c., in finials, as in other ornaments, imitated more closely the forms of natural foliage; but their finials had neither the variety of design nor the vigor of outline of those of the preceding cen tury.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the finials became more and more meager in form, and are frequently only four crockets set upon a bare pyramidal terminal. Some variety of effect is often obtained during this period by surmounting the F. with a gilded vane. This is common in Tudor and domestic architecture. Finials were carved both in stone and wood, and in the latter material with great delicacy and minuteness.
In connection with metal-work, finials of metal were used, and whatever the material adopted, its natural capabilities were made a source of special beauty.
The F. is one of the most effective ornaments of Gothic architecture, and when that style was succeeded by the revival of classic, in the reign of queen Elizabeth, our fore fathers could not persuade themselves to part with the finials to their buildings. We thus find in Elizabethan architecture a great variety of finials; they are, however, almost entirely of a geometric form, and without foliage, and are frequently, especially when terminating wooden gables, combinations of F. and vane partly wood and partly iron. In the stricter classic which succeeded the Elizabethan, some traces of the favorite F. still remain in the balls, obelisks, etc., used as terminations, and also in the shields and supporters (themselves a remnant of feudalism) which form the crowning ornament of gate-piers, pedestals, etc.