Lead Lettering

Matthew, Grahame & I are all continuing our slow progress in mastering the old art of lead lettering.  Gordon Brown, our wonderful teacher and a living icon at Rookwood, is not as active and well as we'd all wish him to be, but we are endeavouring to work our way up to filling at least a good part of his footsteps...

Here's some photos of the stages in a practice job I've been doing for some friends...  the final plaque is to be installed in the space of two bricks.  Here I'm pencilling in the letters...  using a great art deco font based on the one at the Lawrence Hargrave house in Point Piper.

The next step is completing v-cut lettering.  Grahame and Matthew have been mentoring me in it...  and I'm happy to report that I'm coming along.  Still very slow...  and with a long way to go, but becoming precise...  and starting to get a result which I'm at least half happy with....

Here's the panel in progress...  laid out along with my tungsten-carbide lettering chisels and lightest mallet.

The v-cut letters ready for leading.

The lead lettering is a slow progress...  at least for us so far:  where Gordon Brown said a good tradesman was expected to complete 60 letters a day (layout, cut, lead, clean)...  I think I'm up to maybe 6...  Matthew may be at about 8...  and Grahame's not saying...  but, we're definitely not up to the old standards yet!

Here's the letters ready for the final tapping-in and shaping...

I'll do some more posts on the techniques...  or maybe I'll try and get Gordon to do a guest entry (as he's written up quite alot of reference material on the old lettering techniques)...  but essentially it involves drilling angled holes into the letters, cutting lead into thin strips, shaping the letter roughly in lead, pounding the lead in with an ebonite mallet (also called vulcanite it is a hardened rubber product which is just softer than marble...  allowing you to pound in the lead without leaving impact marks on the stone), cutting back the excess, pounding the lead in again, cutting back the excess and starting to form the letter, tapping- in the lead again, cutting the letter forms, giving a flat-face final tapping-in, cutting the final form, and then cleaning and finishing.

I'll post some photos of the final plaque after its installed...

Here's a photo of a finished shadow lettering plaque I did for this year's HIDDEN Art Show at Rookwood...

Still a carving addict...

Sorry that I've not been very active in my blogging...  I'm afraid that I've become even more of a carving addict than ever!

I've got some very interesting (at least to me!) work on the go...  most based on neolithic and iron-age Cycladic marble designs...  but interrupted with a secret-santa gift of a small sandstone monument with raised lettering (my first)...  and I'm still struggling to complete the intricate Celtic knotwork that I started last Christmas.

PS:  I've got some draft blog entries that I wrote while off-line on the train commute...  and will try and post them...  and back-date them to the actual time that they were written.  Sorry if things end up out of order!  (Maybe this new year I'll be good and more regular in posting...  though I am very tempted to go out to the backyard right now and work on my current footed bowl...!)

Jewish Old Ground

We've been given a fantastic opportunity to complete a significant project for the Jewish Cemetery Trust...  including a wide range of maintenance and repair jobs.  At the moment, we are concentrating on completing the maintenance work as we await our approval of our application for a Standard Exemption from the Heritage Branch.

We are following stringent specifications for good practice maintenance and repair work...  using training lime mortars, poulticing, and a variety of conservation techniques emerging from the National Trust (NSW) Guidelines for Cemetery Conservation, ongoing discussions with the Heritage Branch, as well as technical expertise and training from Scotland, Denmark, Canada, etc...  as well as guidance from the Burra Charter and ICOMOS (the International Council of Monuments and Sites).

The project is a great one...  and should integrate well with the Jewish Cemetery Trust's plans for comprehensive repair works...  possibly as well as a National Trust appeal on behalf of the trust for tax-deductable donations to fund the conservation work.

Best of all, it's an opportunity to jump-start the sharing of experience & specifications that I've been meaning to try to get online and out for comment.  The commitment of the Jewish Cemetery Trust, including the Chairman Jack Fisher, the trustee most dedicated to the Old Ground and heritage issues Gary Luke, and the actual staff on the grounds (is going to help drive the project...  I've promised to do a good job of reporting to them...  which should mean that I'll be able to do a good job of sharing our progress and starting a discussion with all of you).

Mapping Success... and Failure

Well, the first phase of the mapping project is done!  And it's all come together beautifully.  After much negotiation and tweaking in the presentation, we've got a series of pdf maps showing the actual plans of all the old sections in the original Anglican No. 1 Cemetery.  This is the area covered under the State Heritage Listing (previously protected by a Permanent Conservation Order)...  with the exception of the "public" graves.  Historically called "pauper sections", there are not as many monuments in these areas...  making the piecing together of the pattern of graves very difficult...  if not impossible.  (We've left them for the final phase in the mapping project...  but will need alot of time...  and we might need some help!)


All the maps are available on the office servers...  but, and it's a big but...  serving them over the internet, given their size (1-3MB) and the overwhelming success of the online database grave locating service, well, it would cost the cemetery an additional 60 to 80 dollars a day in bandwidth charges.  We are looking at other options, and also trying to come up with a funding mechanism, but, for the moment, we are stalled at the stage of trying to make them public.  At least they are done...  and will stay done...  and will feed into the continuing plans to serve them via Google Maps and, most wonderfully, as an overlay on Google Earth.

Hopefully I'll have some good news about this situation soon...  the upside is that internet costs are always going down...  and Google services seem to be continually going up....

Off-the-top-of-my-head, I think the completions are:
Sections A, AA, AAA, AAAA, B, BB, BBB, C, CC, CCC, D, DD, E, EE, F, FF, G, GG & S, and
Sections 1, 2, 3, 4
Most of these sections had no computer plan or map, and were only recorded through copies of an 1880s plan...  which then had to be ground-truthed and corrected ('cause they didn't always stick with the plan...  and, sometimes, the hand-numbering led them to skip numbers or otherwise gain inconsistencies).  A number of sections, however, had no surviving plan:  they were reconstructed from actually surveying the monuments on the ground.

Here's a sample map, extra compressed so that I can sneak it under the bar for this blog...  but a taster for the work that has been done....  The format is .png but the real maps are in pdf so they are easily printed anywhere...

 

Rookwood's Da Vinci Code?

Is there a hidden code written into the historic design of Rookwood?


It all happened while I was working on a rather quick and informal submission for the Visual Significance Survey.  Its a project of the Rookwood Necropolis Trust– a new committee formed by the Department of Lands to help co-ordinate the various denominational trust (and probably intended to try and amalgamate them if possible) and it is one aspect of their work to formulate a new Plan of Management for Rookwood.  (I think they are encouraging public submissions and comments– but they are also under some sort of time restraint & need to show results soon).
I was trying to confirm some observations that one can see from the grounds... namely:
At dawn, the sun rises beside what is now the CBD and illuminates the highrises and the harbour bridge creating an immediate link between the observer and the city.  In terms of the historic landscape, this view would have been clearer (without the overgrowth inside the Sections, and without the trees being so large) and the link to the city much more important.  Instead of the cemetery seeming to be in the middle of nowhere, many miles outside the built up areas of Sydney in the late 1800s, there would have been a direct visual connection with the community, with the church spires and maybe some early street lights....

So I opened Google Earth to double-check.  Oh yes.  Very much East...  it's obvious and one draws a line and keeps it at 90 degrees.  But wait:  that's exact.  How East?  A line drawn at 90.00 degrees from the centre of Necropolis Circuit (the physical and focal heart of the original design for "The Necropolis at Haslem's Creek" passes into downtown AND THROUGH ST JAMES CHURCH.  It misses the spire by about 15 metres over the 15 kilometres...  ie a 99.99% concordance. Whether serendipity or design, well, it's hard to prove design...  but hard to believe in a chance that incredibly slim.
Regardless, however, it IS clear what a connection this makes with Sydney.  In the Old Anglican No. 1 Cemetery, the majority of the graves face East.  Standing at the foot, or entering the cemetery and walking along the near-East facing avenues, the view to Sydney would be obvious...  as it would have been to the surveyors and designers of the Anglican cemetery (who, interestingly, refused to use the initial curvilinear plan of the government designer in order to have linear avenues with central and corner features).
Although now obscured by the mature araucarias (Bunyas, Hoops, Cook Island, & Norfolk Island 'pines') as well as various self-sown trees and overgrown shrubs, when visible, the visual link to Sydney evokes a deep feeling of connectedness.  At dawn, especially– like a rising moon seeming so much larger than it does when higher up in the sky– Sydney skyscrapers and the harbour bridge loom large and seem close.
In the 1860s and 70s, when Rookwood Necropolis was first operating, this connection would have been vital:  a visual proof that the cemetery was not in the middle of nowhere...  despite its real distance from Sydney!


View Rookwood's Da Vinci Code in a larger map


Interestingly, the very word ORIENTATION originates in the idea of facing east.  Related to the siting of churches, it was nevertheless the process of designing something such that it faced the ORIENT ie East.

Are there other mystical design elements in Rookwood?  I'll let you know if I find any more strange coincidences!


PS:  One person who believes that they have found secret patterns in Rookwood is Hu Jin Kok who has studied the Old Chinese area in the General No. 1 Cemetery.  It would certainly not be surprising if the design of the area, including the Quong Sin Tong monument is highly purposeful and meaningful given the Chinese cultural traditions of integrating landscape designs into, well, greater landscapes and understandings of cosmic significance.  He believes he has found symbols and codes of the Hung Men Society in the tombstones, the Quong Sin Tong monument and the overarching design of the Old Chinese section.  See Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney:  Chinese Section 1: 1868-1920 for more information...  (it's available at the State Reference Library).











If the map is not displaying well, you can try this link: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=-33.869434,151.131152&spn=0.137829,0.20977&t=h&z=13&msid=114718625818017715056.00048fb3efede90e25b80.

Mapping continued...

We're now thinking about using the embedded Google Maps as a kind of approachable first step towards our comprehesive mapping project...

The following is a test of how a single section might be represented...  ie it could accompany search results or be the front page for a particular section...  and then also include links to downloadable maps (pdfs of the grave plan layout, kmz files for google earth overlays...  etc)






View Section 13 Test in a larger map

I've added an additional map showing Section B...
but will then be trying to see what happens if I update that map...
and what occurs when I delete it from its home in MyMaps




View Section B in a larger map

Map Testing

Today is the first day of our mapping blitz...   how long a journey it will be, and, well, I don't really have any idea...!

The good news is, however, that Google seems to have, in the last 4 months, made things even easier and better...  and it already seemed like the possibilities were great...  it just may be that we will be making public some wonderful and wonderfully accessible maps to the Anglican & General parts of Rookwood...  soon...  soonish...!

Here is a little test and maybe a taster of things to come...
I am hoping that you will be able to view the following through your browser...  and that it promises live access to dynamic maps if you are walking around with your iPhone, iPad or Android phone...

The first map (which is a draft only and very much the start of a work in progress) shows many of the Sections in the Anglican & General Trusts' area of Rookwood.



View Rookwood Necropolis AGT Sections in a larger map


The second shows the general mapping progress as of February 2010...  but should highlight other possibilities in how we may be able to serve information to you!



View Completed Mapping in a larger map

Back At It... Soon!

Well, I'm back in the land of sandstone...  but not yet at work as I have so much to do:
*  get over the 25 hour flight
*  get used to day and night being reversed
*  get used to the extreme cold! (Nobody in Canada actually beleives or understands how cold winter can be in Sydney.  Living in insulated houses with central heating...  well, it's way warmer in winter even if it's -20C outside...  it never below 18C inside.  As an ex-Canadian, I can attest to it:  Canadians are wimps about being cold inside.  Outside, all rugged up with there technical gear of toques, scarves, and polar gloves & coats...  it's a different story...)

I had to say goodbye to my -100C boots! 

me with my -100C boots

DAKOTA PROPAQ COMPOSITE  -100C

*  there's also days of official paperwork to do...   which, somehow, paralyzes me much more than any work challenge.  Digging a foundation or grave in a tight location, drilling for a tricky hidden pin repair...   they're nothing compared with trying to work out how to fill in FORM 169 Application for a CERS Certificate of Evidence of Resident Status...  I think I've filled in over 200 pages of official paperwork for Canada and Australia in the past 5 years...  and I've struggled!

Closing a Chapter... 12 years later

The BROCK monument:  Woodlawn Cemetery, Block O, Lot 324

Today we finally reinstalled the last of the granite obelisks we identified as unsafe at Woodlawn in 1998.  The Brock monument (not a relation, unfortunately, to the Canadian/British hero who defeated the invading Americans in the War of 1812 and kept Canada its own country), is a massive granite spire which was all-too-ready to fall (requiring only the pressure of my index finger to start the spire moving) during the first Safety Survey of Woodlawn Cemetery.  In 1998, I was charged with identifying the twenty most dangerous monuments in the cemetery...  for us to target for repair.  What we found, however, was alarming:  94 monuments required only minor contact to create movement...  and 6 of those were so dangerous (ready to fall under the pressure of only a pinkie finger) that they had to be taken down immediately.
We ended up repairing as many as possible in situ, but had to take down and place in storage ~40 massive granite spires.  Given the number of other monuments requiring repair (identified as Safety/Priority Class 2 or 3...  and later 4 & 5), and the limited resources available (especially backhoe time, concrete for massive monolithic foundations, etc), we agreed to a goal of reinstalling 3 granite spires each year...
This year, with a Rotary Hammer Drill (thanks Helmut & Robbo!), a dedicated Monument Assistant (Kate!), and lots of backhoe time,  we were able to finish off the last 10...  in addition to 9 others which had become a priority in the intervening years.

The BROCK monument in 1998:  leaning heavily, resting on a single small stone under one corner without a foundation, unsealed and not pinned...

Taking down the dangerous spire was a mammoth undertaking....

It was cold...  but the snow was a good cushion just in case anything slipped...

There's still some work to do in Block F, with S/P Class 2 monuments that include a number of tall granite spires,  but the 1998 removals are all out of storage and we have reinstalled all of the granite monuments which had fallen in the 1970s, 80s and 90's.

The Brock monument reinstalled...  with full foundation (below the 4' frost line), with each layer bedded and set and with a  450mm long pin of 13mm diameter stainless steel securing the spire from ever being a danger again.  (Note that the pin is drilled to fit the upper hole which is in dry-mode {without epoxy} such that the monument can be lifted apart...  it just cannot be pushed down or fall accidentally:  reversibility is vital for good conservation work!)

To Canada

I haven't been that regular a contributor...  and, I'm afraid, I'm likely to be even worse for the next three months (until August) as I've just got my Australian Permanent Resident status.  Paradoxically, it means that I'm free to leave!  I'm heading back to Guelph (Ontario, Canada) to hang with family & friends...   and try to finish my work at Woodlawn where I'm completed 4700 of the ~5400 monuments requiring maintenance or repair.  I'll be updating my Historic Monument Care website while there....  If your interested, there are also photo galleries of landscape, art, & nature shots taken at Woodlawn: with a photo for each month over a number of years.  I'm pretty happy with some of the pics...  and there's certainly a wide range...  and very different vistas from anything that we see at Rookwood!

Addendum July 2010:

Here's some photos I've taken this summer...  highlighting the different fauna...

Groundhog (cute varmit)

Massive wasp with 100mm long needle...  they were pumping something in...  or out...  of tiny holes they were boring in an old dead sugar maple tree.

Cicada emerging from its old skin...

Repairing Vandalism in Wollongong

We've just gotten back from a 2 day expedition to start repairs to some terrible vandalism at Wollongong-  the old Wesleyan/Presbyterian grounds of the Wollongong General Cemetery.

It's taken over a year to actually start work–  I think there's been all sorts of problems with issues like whose going to pay...   and the repairs have waited for the installation of a tall fence to ensure that the damage isn't repeated right away.

We met with some of the great & dedicated volunteerrs who have worked to document the monuments, map the cemetery, and, sadly, record all of the considerable vandalism damage.  It was great to meet the volunteers, though, and we will all certainly be lobbying to work together again soon!

In two days – with a fun overnight stay at the Wollongong Surf Leisure Resort (though we didn't end up with much time to explore the 'leisure' or 'surf' aspects) – we completed most of the targetted 14 repairs plus 1 additional high priority safety concern.  The lime putty mortar work will, however, have to await a longer-term project so that we can ensure proper aftercare for the setting mortar.

The main difficulties we faced was not with the scope of the damage – but, interestingly, with differences in philosophical approach...  and subsequent corollaries in how, exactly, to complete repair work in the best possible fashion...!

Stone/Masonry

It's a funny thing, but most of the 'monumental stonemasonry' that we do, well, it doesn't really seem like stone-masonry.  Yes, sure, it's monumental, and it involves stone, but so much of it is fixing & gluing, foundations,...  I guess, actually, it really is stonemasonry but...
Today we were carving massive letters in stone.  It's part of the work that we (MiM) are doing as sponsors of the HIDDEN sculpture exhibition which starts next Wednesday and is open (and free) for a month afterwards.  It's just within Rooky at the Strathfield entrance off Centenary Drive– beside Reflections Cafe.
We're doing some letters to guide people to the show and highlight the location...   it's been a great and interesting challenge...  and really feels like good stone-masonry!

Hidden shadow letters...  if you can read them... well, it's all the work of your imagination!
The letters themselves are not carved in at all.
I found an old gravestone in the area of Section CC with these letters...  and thought how wonderful they are....  Very glad to get a chance to try the style out...  'though I couldn't find the old gravestone when I looked for it...  if only I hadn't been almost late for work that earlier day, I'd have taken a photo of the original!

The tap-tap-tap of mallets and chisels was a wonderful change from the loud and dusty  powertools we use every other day.

Grahame at work with a mallet...

Matthew's noiser as he uses a dummy hammer

Carving Addict

Miniature marble antefix

I must admit that I've become a carving addict.

Shaping marble to make some eggs...

My first finished egg!

I mean to do other things...  but, somehow, whenever I've got some free moments, well, my thoughts turn to carving and I get out my tools if I have any time at all...  or sketch plans or letters or read my historic ornament pattern books or...  well, you get the picture.

Experimenting with Celtic spirals in the style of the Aberlemno Cross

I've been neglecting almost everything.  [I have managed to still do a little food shopping and cooking and I haven't quite neglected to spend time with Libby...  but, otherwise, I've been bad.]  Neglecting email.  Failing to call family and friends in Canada.  Lots of great research projects neglected (including investigating Natural Hydraulic Lime versus cement in the 1870's through 1900s, mapping Rookwood, making sense of the layout in Old Chinese, reporting on the RAMSAY vault, reading old monumental mason FA ARNOLD's papers in the Mitchell Library...  so many great things to do!).  Even this blog, which I agreed to volunteer for and do a post a week...  well, my own blog is pretty well silent...  and I've hardly posted anything more on my youtube channel except a short movie of Rainbow Lorikeets in an Illawarra Flametree.

I learned from this:  don't ever try and do Celtic knotwork...  it takes forever!

There's too much to learn...  and try...  and do!

My next project is to try and create some Cycladic figurines...  in the style of the so-called "Ashmolean Master"....

This figurine is almost finished...!

Bunya Smoko

Bunya trees are awesome.

Not only have they survived from Jurassic times with their dinosaur-resistant leaves like platemail armour...  not only do they tower over Rookwood (and Section A) with their wonderful and instantly-recognisable shape...  they also provide great smoko snacks, delivered onsite...!

The first time I tried a Bunya nut–  guided by solid info. that Bunya nuts really are edible (raw, cooked, roasted, boiled,...  however you want....)  Well, my first Bunya nut experience wasn't great. It tasted of nothing much but had a vague accent of pine cleanser mixed with diesel.  I think it had sat around in the sun too long.

As I walked into work last week – after a night of heavy winds – a massive cone blocked my way past Section AA.  Alright, already, I thought:  I'll give you another try.

The 10 minutes it took me to open the hull as I walked to the Anglican & General Trusts office gave me a clue that maybe my earlier one was overripe (it was so much easier to open).

The nut was massive...
and,
it turned out:
d--- tasty!

For smoko, then, these mighty trees which add so much to the historic and natural character of the place, well, they also gave me my morning treat.

By lunch, I definitely had a taste for them and set about collecting some for home...  and friends...  all-the-while considering possible recipes.

Firstly, the taste and texture is reminiscent of pine nuts...  just 40 times the size...  and without the great expence.  Bunya nut pesto, then, was an obvious choice.

And that became dinner.
The only problem was that, with the nuts so massive...  I ended up making 3 batches of pesto (good for, say, 6 or 8 serving each)...  and didn't make a dint in my collection of Bunya nuts.

Australia Day obviously called for some more Bunya work:  cookies with choc. chips and also Macadamia nuts.  Good too...  but the chocolate was a bit overpowering.  Supposedly you can use Bunya nuts for an oatmeal/starchy substitute...  so I'm going to work on some oatmeal-Bunya-sultana cookies (once this heat and humidity breaks...  if it breaks...)


OF COURSE:  it's important that I warn you that Monuments in Memoriam and the Anglican & General Trusts in no way encourage or condone people to eat found food...  nor stand under Bunya trees in December through March when those 5kg cones might just drop from a towering height.
So far, though, every cone I've seen down has followed nights of heavy winds:  still...  please take care! The stonemasonry team have been discussing it...  and we're are hoping to hear one drop sometime...  as long as we are not too close....

I've given away a bunch now...  and used up much of our stock (Rhonda's right:  they do taste better cooked...  but there's something magic about them raw).  I'm waiting for the aftermath of the next night of high winds:  I have my eyes out on some massive cones 40m up in Section AA...

Libby found this great online document with piles of information on Bunyas...

http://fennerschool-associated.anu.edu.au/environhist/links/publications/anzfh/anzfh2haebich.pdf

(One note:  if roasting them, be careful about the heat 'cause I can attest that they really will explode in the oven if you insist on cranking it to 250).

Conservation of Cemeteries

My conservation mentor in Canada– Tamara Anson-Cartwright– has been encouraging me to write up my understanding of the importance and value of conserving monuments (specifically for presentation to the Ontario Association of Cemeteries and Funeral Professionals [in Canada] but hopefully to be useful generally).  It's not that I'm some sort of profound world expert:  instead, I think, its for the same reason that she & Per Neumeyer {late conservation master stonemason and friend to whom I owe so much} so appreciated having me help in teaching the Essentials for Monument Care course:  because I'm a person who started out as a simple cemetery worker.  I have come to care and understand the value and beauty of cemeteries from (simply) working in them.  Maybe I'm an insider amongst the motley characters who work in cemeteries...  part of a long continuing tradition of sextants, gravediggers, and now 'burial technicians' as the industry insiders re-brand us.

Cemetery landscapes are both irreplaceable and unlike any other public spaces in our world.  (The closest equivalent in probably historic sites and ruins.)  Cemeteries comprise a unique combination of public and private space:  being both a publically accessible as a park encouraging contemplation and passive enjoyment of nature; and, a place embodying specific histories and private grief.

The heritage value of cemeteries like Rookwood is not replaceable:  the intact and often untouched plantings, the monuments, the objects historically placed on graves, the designs and carvings and symbolism....
Cemeteries embody history.  Just as they are a safe and enduring space for us to place our dead (and celebrate lives as we work through our griefs), they become living records of our understandings of life and death, of meanings symbolised through carving, and, well, through symbols permanently etched in stone.  These meaning emerge from all sorts of individual family stories, collating and extending into a actualisation and realisation of how society as a whole has understood it's place in the world....  And, greatest of all, this is recorded in cemeteries over a long stretch of time....

In Rookwood, you can literally walk through different decades cultural understandings, of architectural styles...  simply by moving through different sections and blocks of the cemetery.  Likewise, differences between cultural groups in recorded in the different denominational areas...  and even in the different managemental policies and maintenance regimes now enacted upon those areas.  So much written in the place.  (One of my favourites is the Old General...  but that's another story.)

Stone carving

Carving marble is amazing.

I've always wanted to...  but never actually got around to it and making the time....  That, and the lack of a ready supply.  Well, I should have started years ago....  it's great fun and absolutely wonderful to work with.

For my first piece, I wanted to be as artistic and old-school as I could:  I resolved to try and carve a (slightly miniature) classical antefix...  and complete it using only a mallet & chisels.  I eventually succumbed to also using my bastard rasp (for shaping the back)...  but otherwise stayed true to my resolution.  I also resolved to complete the carving without measurements...  to see if I could replicate the pattern and form through pencil drawing and then execute that into stone carving.

Turns out that it's really not all that hard...  and was really good fun.  Of course, the lovely sharp tungsten carbide chisels I was using are hardly authentic to historic tools, but, well, I wouldn't go without them...  at least not for now.


Classical temples often were decorated with an acroteria at the apex of the roof, and then often had a series of antifixes on the corners and sometimes along the line of the sides of the roof tiles.  I've always loved the form of them, and admired the palmate designs often found on them (and also on grave stelae...  a future project).  I've based mine directly on a sketch from Franz Meyer's Handbook of Ornament (1892) showing an antefix from the Temple of Jupitor Stator in Rome.

At Christmas, I noticed that my partner Libby's mom has a collection of stone eggs...  so that's my on-going project...  and a future post...