I was recently commissioned to restore an old headstone and add an additional inscription for another deceased member of the same family. The headstone shown here (left) was quite heavily weathered, but still in remarkably good order. It was located at West End cemetery, nr. Southampton, Hampshire U.K. and was originally carved in the 1950's from Portland stone by a very accomplished artist. The style is very reminiscent of the school of Eric Gill and I have my suspicions that it may well have been carved by one of his 'Ditchling crew'.
The first step here was to remove the headstone (seen here is my colleague Andy Parsons digging up the stone) and bringing it back to my studio nr Andover for some TLC.
My assistant Karolinka cleaned the carving with nothing more technical than warm soapy water and a variety of scrubbing brushes, (plus plenty of time and patience!) using a fine bronze brush for the details.
The cleaned carving
I set to work cleaning the back of the stone bearing the main inscription using the same method.
The partly cleaned inscription, a nicely balanced classical set of text. When fully cleaned and dry the stone is set up on my easel where I carefully pencil on the new inscription to match the style and balance of the extant lettering. All my letter-carving is done by hand, using a zinc-alloy 'dummy' and fine tungsten carbide tipped chisels, most of which I now have made to order by John Parsons of Salisbury, Wiltshire (U.K.) Finally, there were two very fine hairline cracks in the stone which were repaired with a mixture of stone dust and hydraulic lime, coloured to match the stone.
Here is dear old Andy Parsons out in the rainy British summer setting the headstone back in place. Note the pre-cast concrete 'shoe' footing set below ground level.
The finished stone, good for a few more years yet, a satisfying job well done.
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