Read Gravestones, Tombs & Memorials Online
Authors: Trevor Yorke
Tags: #Gravestones Tombs and Memorials
Gravestones, Tombs & Memorials (11 page)
4.13: TRUMPET:
This means victory and resurrection, and can be found either in the hands of angels as above or combined with mortality emblems.
FIG 4.14: CROWN:
Symbolic of victory, honour and glory, but also can be the immortal crown of the Christian life. It is usually shown in association with other symbols, sometimes in clouds offered to the mortal below. If held in the hand, it means an innocent life, as found on the grave of a child.
FIG 4.15: FATHER TIME:
Usually shown as an old muscular man with a scythe and hourglass, it is another symbol of time and mortality. He is depicted as a full-sized winged figure and can vary greatly, as in the two examples above.
FIG 4.16: BOOKS:
These can represent the Bible, indicating resurrection through scripture or a member of the clergy. They can also mean wisdom and when stacked, knowledge, and can be found open or closed.
FIG 4.17: DOVE:
The Divine spirit in a glory of light was a central feature of many gravestones from the last quarter of the 18th century. A dove could also mean innocence or purity and with a twig in its mouth it could mean hope or promise.
Trade Symbols
It was common for tools or symbols of trades to be included on gravestones. Carvings of crops were common on memorials to yeoman farmers and it was traditional to send a sheaf of corn to relatives upon their death. The tools of particular trades like weaving can often be found and objects like chalices or pastoral staves were used on the gravestones of the clergy. Weapons for knights and soldiers and even ships for naval officers or merchants can be found too. There are also some more peculiar trades, like the ammonites featured on the gravestone of Samuel Carrington, a 19th-century archaeologist and barrow digger!
Later symbols
FIG 4.18: URNS:
These generally represent the soul and when draped or leant upon by a mourning figure they form a Classical image of grief or mourning (
Fig 4.23
). They become common on gravestones from the late 18th century and can initially be found in delicate and varied forms (some incorrectly shown open as if they carried the human remains within) while later examples from the 1840s and 1850s are more bulky. They can be a simple central carving or a sculptured feature on top of a tomb.
FIG 4.19: TREES AND PLANTS:
A tree shown upright meant life, while one which has been cut meant death (a broken column was used in a similar way). Although a number of different types of tree can be illustrated the willow became dominant from the late 18th century through into the Victorian period. A cut flower similarly implied a life cut down in its prime, a poppy represented sleep and palm leaves or branches victory over death. Plants were regarded by many as a Popish symbol and didn't become common until the 19th century.
FIG 4.20: HANDS:
Clasped means friendship or brotherly love while a single hand pointing could signify the Divine presence. Four hands clasped crossways was a Victorian motif inspired by a line from Tennyson: âO for the touch of a vanished hand'.
FIG 4.21: LAMB:
The lamb with cross and sometimes a banner is known as the Agnus Dei, which is Latin for Lamb of God and was a popular motif on Victorian gravestones, representing Christ. It can also be found on earlier memorials set amidst flames denoting the sacrificial lamb or sometimes is associated with children's or shepherds' graves.
FIG 4.22: FREEMASONS' SYMBOLS:
A mason's gravestone showing some of the common symbols used on their memorials, although rarely in such a splendid display as this.
