|
|
| |
Backgrounds of Identified Gravestone Carvers
| Name |
Background |
| PETER BARKER |
(b. April 13, 1740, Branford, New Haven CT; married Ruth Curtis on June 7, 1764 in Waterbury CT). |
| S. BROOKS & CO. |
Providence, Rhode Island. |
| CAPTAIN JOHN BULL (1734-1808) |
Middletown/Newport, Rhode Island. Contemporary of William Stevens II. 1775 advertisement: "the house formerly improved by James Phillipps where any person may be supplied with Tomb or Gravestones of the best black slate." (Forbes, Gravestones of Early New England ..., 1927, p. 97) The earliest stones generally attributed to John Bull are about 1770. |
| D. A. BURT |
Taunton |
| J.B. |
The Taunton River carver. "The rugged JB stones probably would not have suited the sophisticated Newport trade, but they found a ready market in the rural inland. The wonderfully rich, aggressive, bold designs, heavily cut in strong light and shade, appear to be struggling adaptations of William Stevens' basic tympanum and pilaster designs [of which there are in the Taunton Basin fine examples and ample documentation.) (Vincent Luti,"Newsletter of the Association for Gravestone Studies, Fall 1980, Part II, p.19) |
| JABEZ CARVER |
(b. June 6, 1747, in Bridgewater MA; married Phebe Wilbore in 1773): A gravestone carver from Raynham. "The Carver genealogy contains an extraordinarily detailed account of Jabez' military career, including even a physical description of the man, but not a death date. His carving is nearly indistinguishable from that of Barney Leonard. A few probated stones exist, most of the "sun face" type design. The "spirit skull" photograph on page 49 of Benes' book is his work. His "fronds" or "tendrils" are extremely bold and graceful, and are occasionally found flanked by energetically scrolling intaglio vines terminating in three-leaf clusters on wide tympana rims. His side borders frequently consist of twin recessed bands topped by shoulder finials of tiny stylized trees or pairs of attenuated lobes which arch from one bank to the other. A probated carving in Taunton incredibly has a sun face sprouting fronds instead of rays, nearly documenting both typical motifs in one artifact." (Mike Cornish, courtesy of Laurel Gabel). |
| LEONARD DEAN |
"[He] was a stonecutter, probably from Taunton.. His designs are extremely shallow - really more engraved than carved. Dean worked at the very end of the 18th century; he seems to have been most active around 1800. I have located his work in Norton, Taunton, and Rehoboth." (Mike Cornish to Laurel Gabel). |
| CYRUS DEANE |
"[He] is another mystery carver. He signed stones in Mansfield, Berkley, and West Medway, the latter two of the "frond" or "tendril" type. The Lois Pond stone in West Medway, on which two pairs of fronds flank a semi-circle with intaglio tree, is likely an imitation of Joseph Barbur's work (identical carvings by Deane are found in Bellingham designs. The cherub carving in Mansfield resembles strongly the Pratt/New figure type." (Mike Cornish to Laurel Gabel). |
| HATHAWAY |
|
| BARNEY LEONARD |
Late Eighteenth-Century Angel Carver in Plymouth, MA.. Active gravestone carver: 1780-1810. Plymouth County Court documents: 30:224; 31:302. (Peter Benes, Masks of Orthodoxy, 1977, p. 148, 241.) |
| THE JOHN STEVENS SHOP |
Begun in 1705 in Newport, Rhode Island, the Shop continues its highly skilled tradition today (1997) under John and Nick Benson. "They all possessed it, these Stevenses, an unfailing understanding and love of lettering, inherited in their genes, learned in the shop from parents or grandparents." (See Markers I, below). The last of the Stevens stonecutters died in 1900. |
| JOHN STEVENS II |
died 1778. "...[he] cut away the background to define his leafy borders, pursing the lips of his cherub heads, while across his great tombstones march capitals and lower case never to be surpassed ..." (Esther Fisher Benson, "The John Stevens Shop," Markers I., p. 82. He also carved many of the horizontal slabs with coats-of-arms found in Newport burying grounds. (Forbes, Gravestones, p. 93.) |
| PHILIP STEVENS |
"...cutting into the nineteenth century white marble a type face letter, deep and very small." (See Markers I, above.) |
| CAPTAIN WILLIAM STEVENS |
1710-1794, brother of John II. Worked in Newport until about 1775. |
| S. WARREN |
Bathsheba Walker, d. February 24, 1738 - probably John Bull, could be Stevens |
|
|
