A couple days ago we had very nice weather, so I decided, as is my way, to visit a cemetery. In this case, it was the Old Burial Ground in Boylston, MA (1741). (Findagrave listing, Farber images; no MACRIS listing as Boylston is omitted from online files oddly).
I’ve been to this cemetery many times and decided that with the stone walls surrounding the grounds, I could safely unleash the homunculus whilst I took some photographs. It’s a scenic spot with a convenient parking lot across the street and worth a visit if you are in the area.
Very nice shots. Any insight about the stonework here? I’m particularly transfixed by the oddly African-seeming faces on the stones for Lydia B. and Gardner M. What do you know about that style?
That is usually called the face and rosette (or pinwheel) style which I sometimes personally call “geometric”; doing some preliminary digging I see that it is part of what is called the Merrimac Valley Style, a style created by John Hartshorne of Haverhill (and elsewhere) and copied by the Mulliken, Leighton, and Worcester families of carvers in Northeast and Central Mass. See – http://archive.org/stream/markers11asso#page/142/mode/2up
In this case, these stones were carved by Jonathan or Moses Worcester of Harvard using very fine Pin Hill slate; I think they’re all Jonathan.See – http://luna.davidrumsey.com:8280/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&q=worcester%2C+jonathan&sort=Name%2CDates&search=Search