Fine Stone Miniatures : The Cathedral Builders (4)

Martin and Oliver Webb Fine Stone Miniatures. Museum quality handmade miniatures of stone carvings for the collector and connoisseur.
	The Cathedral Builders A stonemason's photograph album Page 4 of 8


	This series of photographs show some of the work undertaken to Worcester Guild Hall during the total restoration of its facade headed by Martin Webb. The picture to the left shows Martin carving the middle section to one of the urns which grace the parapet. The stone used for most of the work was Monk's Park Bathstone, a soft, white-ish, even textured oolitic limestone that holds a good arris (edge) and lends itself well to carving.
This is the same stone fixed in situ atop the main facade of the Guild Hall. As you can see, not all of the stones making up the urn were replaced, the sections immediately above and below the piece shown above were the originals refixed.
	Here Martin is carving one of the panels of foliage which are between the first and ground floor windows. The foliage is stylised acanthus leaf. During the work two snails were carved onto the foliage. They came about as no interest was being shown in the work by the main contractor, so Martin carved the snails. Nobody bothered to visit the site for weeks on end, so the snails remained. They are there to this day and were the inspiration behind our catalogue No.75.
	Some of the freshly worked window parts awaiting fixing. The chunkier pieces (left and centre top) are jambs, two sill sections (second from left) and the rest are various hood mouldings.
	An heraldic eagle which forms part of the richly carved and decorated tympanum, the crowning glory of Worcester Cathedral, which was designed by one Thomas White in 1722.
	One of the replacement capitals either side of the main entrance. This is actually a composite capital, having Corinthian foliage below and prominent Ionic volutes above. The horizontal band of decoration carved between the volutes is Bead and Reel (below) and Egg and Dart (above).
	The completed restoration of the tympanum, freshly painted and gilded. The original had been painted so many times with lead based paint that pieces of old paint over an inch thick were removed during the work. Martin is visible above the tympanum replacing Justice's scales.