Quoins (/kɔɪn/or/kwɔɪn/) aremasonry blocks at the corner of a wall.^[1] Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferiorstone orrubble,^[2] while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner.^[3] According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, these imply strength, permanence, and expense, all reinforcing the onlooker's sense of a structure's presence.^[4]

Stone quoins are used on stone or brick buildings. Brick quoins may appear on brick buildings, extending from the facingbrickwork in such a way as to give the appearance of generally uniformly cutashlar blocks of stone larger than the bricks. Where quoins are decorative and non-load-bearing a wider variety of materials is used, includingtimber,stucco, or othercement render.

In a traditional, often decorative use, large rectangularashlar stone blocks or replicas are laid horizontally at the corners. This results in an alternate, quoining pattern.

Courses of large and smallcorner stones are used, alternating between stones of different thickness, with typically the larger cornerstones thinner than the smaller.^{[citation needed]}

The long and short quoining method instead places long stone blocks with their lengths oriented vertically, between smaller ones that are laid flat. This load-bearing quoining is common inAnglo-Saxon buildings such asSt Bene't's Church in Cambridge, England.^[5]

Look up quoin in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911)."Quoins" .Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

• Stonemasonry
• Types of wall
• Architectural elements

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