Sunday, March 8, 2009

Trumpets

Gravestone theme of the day: Trumpets!

Lydia Hartshorn, Providence, RI, 1776:

Elizabeth Clark, Chelmsford, MA, 1767:

Chandler Holmes, Plymouth, MA, 1831:

Margaret Cumings, Billerica, MA, 1790:

Jonas Clark, Chelmsford, MA, 1770:

David Payson, Wiscasset, ME, 1814:

More trumpets! And more, and more, and more!

2 comments:

Robert J. said...

1770 Jonas Clark is a Park stone, and looking at the whole of it I see it shows a detail of the Parks' lettering that I've been noting more and more.

The Parks were real writing-masters, and their lettering is some of the finest you'll see. But one irregularity is their frequently dropped 8's. In good printing/carving with "old style" numerals (lower case figures), the numeral 8 should rest on the baseline with the upper loop as an ascender. (Same with 6, for example.) But the Parks frequently, though not always, carve the 8 so that the lower loop is a descender and the upper loop rests on the baseline. (Like 9's, for example.) The only reason this is noteworthy is because they are otherwise so meticulous.

I've see this often enough on Park stones to make it almost characteristic of them, although I wonder if certain carvers in the shop might have done it more than others.

VJESCI said...
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