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make good bronze rings for door handles, he brought them to Casali the following day. 14 Seamlessly combining the form and function of his subjects, Casali coiled the long, lean bodies of the snakes in the shape of almost the figure eight, with the looped tail serving as the handle (see front cover). Perfectly captured scales cover the snakes' bodies, which intertwine with branches of leaves and acorns; encir- cling the snakes are wreaths of acanthus leaves with bead- and-reel decoration. While Meigs's snakes were most often black snakes and copperheads, he also had a rattlesnake that he instructed Casali to mold before the reptile was spoiled by the cold weather, but he warned Casali to be careful because the snake was venomous and could give the modeler a fatal wound. 15 While casting snakes, Casali and the Bronze Shop also made patterns for the foliage of the Dome column capitals, but they still spent time on the ornaments for the House Chamber gallery doors. The annual reports on the Exten- sion for 1855 and 1856 mention "bronze work for the doors of the galleries of the legislative halls." 16 In 1857, with the completion of the House Chamber nearing, Meigs was attentive to the progress of the doors. He arranged for the Capitol gardener to give Casali access to flowers, leaves, and branches to help ensure the accuracy of his modeling. Meigs also gave Casali a patina formula for the ornaments with instructions on how to apply it: "apply…to the bronze with a camel hair pencil having first warmed the casting. Repeat the wash until the color desired is obtained." 17 Furthermore, he specifically recommended that Casali try the wash on the grape branches, which were used to decorate the frames of the doors. In making these recommendations and directives, Meigs was speaking from an informed position, having taken the time to study bronze and sculpture techniques. He even suggested bronze alloy compositions for Casali's castings. The bronze ornaments cast by Casali and the Bronze Shop decorated twenty-four doors surrounding the visitor's gallery of the new House Chamber (seven of which were dummies added for architectural symmetry). 18 Measuring approximately nine feet in height and three feet in width, the doors were made of baywood mahogany veneered with bird's-eye maple by Capitol master carpenter Pringle Slight and mounted with bronze ornaments that are influenced both in subject and arrangement by classicism as well as Renais- sance and Baroque art. 19 In a comparison of the sketch for the House doors dated from the time Casali was hired with those executed, there is little difference; they are almost identical in design. As in the sketch, flora and fauna decorate the valves of the doors with acanthus quatrefoils repeating at the top and bottom; below an eagle, rinceaux cascade down to acanthus surrounding putti (fig. 5) and then gracefully open into hanging grape bunches. Rosettes decorate the two 19 THE CAPITOL DOME Fig. 6. Valves of the House Chamber Gallery Doors Fig. 5. Putti figures from the House Chamber Gallery Doors