Thursday, June 17, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Alice Foord

Alice Foord, 1733, Lincoln, MA
HERE LYES Ye
BODY OF MRS
ALICE FOORD
WIFE TO Mr PELEG
FOORD WHO
DYED MAY Ye 30th
1733 & IN Ye 38th
YEAR OF HER AGE

2 comments:

Robert J. said...

Fascinating example of the carver's thinking exposed on the spot. When he started to carve PELEG it looks like he thought he would have to carry it over to the second line, so he added a colon as a version of the standard double hyphen: PE:

Then he decided he did have room so he cut the L after the double hyphen: PE:L

But then he decided he didn't quite have room after all so he reduced the EG to fit just above the baseline.

Once upon a time I would have assumed that carvers routinely pencilled or chalked the lettering on the stone before they started with the chisel, but I've seen so many examples like this one that it's clear in most cases they did not.

—RJO

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

I'll add this to the file of evidence related to the gravestone production process.

The only times I've ever watched someone carve a gravestone have been my trips to the John Stevens shop, where the carvers paint the letters before carving. They certainly never end up making spacing decisions mid-line.