July 2022 - Divine Stone

View of bankers in the cutting side of the stoneyard shed on Oct. 24, 1980. On the wall hang a number of zinc templates. Photo – Robert F. Rodriguez

A banker is a bench of timber or stone on which stone is worked. A banker mason carves or cuts the stone using drawings and templates into finished products for installation into buildings. The term “banker”, meaning bench, is Germanic but came into English via Late Latin bancus via Norman French baunk. This means bench, but because the bench is where money handlers sat in the market, bank also came to mean the house of financial transactions in French, Spanish (banco) and Italian. The old bankers above live on repurposed in a new setting.

Sett Makers Bankers Dartmoor 1850's — Granite Sett Makers Bankers, Dartmoor, UK – 1850’s

The bankers above are stone, in this case, a crude work bench for dressing granite for paving setts. It was cheaper to finish the stone on the moor and then cart away the finished product to its destination. Apparently human labor was cheaper than the cost of horse transporting the raw material to a finishing shed.

The Cathedral Stone Cutters

Old Bankers Live on — Nils Poole works on a sill skeleton bed mould in the stonecutting shed on Oct. 3, 1980. Photo – Robert F. Rodriguez

Several of these bankers are continuing to serve stone carvers today, 2022. They are used for the Pellittieri Stone Carving Academy, a 501(c)(3) organization They are in the Bronx studio of Chris Pellittieri. When Chris Pellettieri attended the Cathedral School in the late 1970’s, the Cathedral’s then Dean, Reverend James Morton, had begun a campaign to resume construction on the Cathedral building. This renewal of building activity – along with a childhood spent in and around the Cathedral – had kindled a longing in Chris to become a Cathedral builder.

Chris Pellettieri – Apprentice to Stone Carver

After graduating Stuyvesant High School and NYU he returned to the Cathedral and became an apprentice stone carver. After the stone yard closed in 1994, Chris stayed on as a Cathedral Artist in Residence. Chris worked in the shed that had been vacated by the stone program and naturally used the bankers since they were there. When he had to leave, he took one with him and stored two others in the Crypt. These three and three he recently built are used for the Academy’s programs.

The Stone Carving Academy

Chris is conducting a two week long workshop for High School students in collaboration between the NYCDoE and his organization. He teaches them to carve a monogram all using the same size piece of limestone. The first day they learn to flatten the stone surface.

Stone carving Academy monograms — Monograms carved by Pellittieri Stone Carvers’ Academy students. – Photo Robert F. Rodriguez

After the monograms, the students were taught to carve a bas-relief portrait.

Chris is instructing a student in the initial stages of the bas relief. – Photo Robert F. Rodriguez

Pellittieri Stone Carver's Academy student work — One student’s monogram and bas-relief portrait from the workshop. Photo – Robert F. Rodriguez

Cathedral carvings by Chris Pellittieri in previous Divine Stone blogs Here and Here
More about the Pellittieri Stone Carvers’ Academy Here
The Cathedral School, Alumni News
Thanks to Robert Rodriguez for spotting the story of the bankers.

Tom Murphy, Master Stone Carver — Tom Murphy at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine – New York Times, March 14, 1983 – Photo Marilynn K. Yee

Liverpool Cathedral appointed Thomas Gerald Murphy chief carver in 1935. In 1904, the year Tom Murphy was born, King Edward VII laid the Foundation Stone for the Liverpool Cathedral. At the official completion in 1978, he had spent 44 years working on the Cathedral. He continued carving for several years as there was always one more detail. Tom Murphy, Master Stone Carver received the honor of Member of the British Empire from Queen Elizabeth on June 26, 1979.

Murphy apprenticed to the firm of Earp, Hobbs & Miller, a highly successful firm of architectural sculptors and stone carvers, from 1919 to 1927, and qualified at Manchester School of Art in 1927. He began work with the firm of H.H. Martyn and worked on the Palace of Westminster between 1928 and 1930. Murphy later assisted with the carving of the Queensway Tunnel Entrance in Liverpool and the Gladstone Dock Development before coming to the Liverpool Cathedral.

The Master Builder Calls For a Carver

Murphy and St. John’s master builder Jim Bambridge spoke often on the phone and corresponded. Bambridge persuaded Tom to come to the Cathedral for two weeks in 1983. He made models and sketches for future carvers. At the time, 3,300 blocks of limestone were cut and finished in 4 years of work. However, there were no carvers. A Gothic cathedral needs carvers. At 79 years old, Murphy had one last carving to finish on the west front in Liverpool, but Jim Bambridge was an old friend and he had some curiosity about St. John’s.

Usually, Tom Murphy, Master Stone Carver worked from a drawing that he or someone else has made. He marked the stone with a compass or pencil to outline proportions. The markings were not intricate, there must be room for inspiration.

There’s a lot more to carving than just cutting stone. If you can’t see it in the block, you might as well go home.
– Tom Murphy

As he did his carvings, he also assessed the work of an apprentice. This apprentice will probably be sent to England to study stone-carving. “It is time,” Bambridge said “to get the new generation started.”

An Apprentice’s Memory

Joseph Kincannon remembers Tom’s brief stay after almost 40 years. “He was the sweetest guy ever. A real craftsman. Typical of carvers, he only used hammers. I remember this seeming strange, as we mostly used mallets which is more of a banker mason’s tool. His accuracy throwing that hammer was noticed, and admired by all. He knocked out a couple crocketts. He worked stone effortlessly, always by hand.”

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Time Magazine, November 13, 1978
New York Times, May 14, 1983
Queens Birthday Honors, 1979
Biographical information – Sean B. Murphy