Art of The Stonemason

Book Description

Drawing on five generations of family tradition as stonemasons in his native Scotland, Ian Cramb created this masterful work to pass on his knowledge and experience to craftsmen who wish to learn the ancient, but still necessary, principles of the stonemason's art. Since original publication by Betterway Books in 1992, this book has established itself as an essential learning tool for masons doing new construction and also those engaged in restoration of historic stone structures.
Beginning with a detailed discussion of building with "random rubble", which is the name for the early Celtic art of building with irregular stones bedded on mortar, the author proceeds to more complex projects such as fireplaces, stairs, arches, bridges and more. There is extensive treatment of various restoration techniques involved with historic structures both in the US and Britain, some as old as 1000 years. In additon the author covers various types of stone, stone-cutting, etc. as well as using tradional mortar mixes, which have demonstrated their utility in stone walls and buildings which have lasted for many centuries.
The Art of the Stonemason is profusely illustrated with the author's meticulous line drawings and photographs.
Ian Cramb began his apprenticeship at the age of 14 in Dunblane, Scotland. Surrounded by large estates, farm buildings, a ruined 13th century bishop's palace, two large fifteenth century castles, a Gothic cathedral, and numerous other stone buildings, Dunblane was an apprentice stonemason's paradise. In 1957 Mr. Cramb took over as master stonemason on the restoration of the monastic buildings around the abbey on Iona. He rebuilt the cloisters, restored St. Michael's Chapel, and also restored St. Oran's Chapel in the Cemetary of Kings, built in 1075. In 1959 Mr. Cramb moved to the US where he set stone and marble on the Capitol building, and then he acted as stone and marble mason for the Raeburn Building and World Bank Building in Washington, DC. He now lives in Bangor, Pennsylvania.

Customer Reviews:

Stonemasonry.......2005-04-15

I became interested in the art of stone masonry a couple of years ago. This book is by far the most excellent one I have seen, and I have researched back as far as the 1870's. Mr. Cramb is definitely an artisan beyond compare.

If for aesthetic value alone, this book would be worth every penny.

The 6th generation.......2005-02-06

As I am the son of the author,and also the stonemason who's work is featured in some of the pictures in the book ,I have to give the book the highest rating possible.I know my father spent at least 10 years drafting , planning and trying to find a publisher, and now that the book is out of print it is astounding to see how much its value has increased.I have the original drawings my father made (all framed of course) and also the original draft and photos that are featured in the book. I am very proud to have been a small part in what was a very succesful publication.Maybe one day I'll write a sequel !! might call it "the craft of the stonemason",but thats something I'll have to sit down and think about.

This is the book.......2003-05-24

The author provides hard and fast do's and don'ts derived from his experience of many years. If you want to learn how to build a traditional mortared stone wall this is the best book around. With or without the color photos, buy it.

Another good on Stone Masonry........2002-12-17

Another good book on traditional stone masonry. I wish there was some some colour photos in it. It does have some information that is not found in other stone mason books. Add it to your Stone Masonry library.

The Art of the Stonemason.......2002-02-05

Excellent book if you are really intrested in learning the trade! Specifications on building substantial projects, basic principles of stone masonry. Feels like an apprenticeship as you read and study. Unfortunately, no one to ask questions of which you're bound to encounter. Even adds section on cutting stone- the only one I've seen.

Guided by a Stonemason: The Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches of Britain Unveiled

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One of the first books to read about cathedrals and churches
Broad array of topics and easy to understand
Everything you always wanted to know about cathedrals ...
Guided By A Stone Mason,By Thomas Maude

Guided by a Stonemason: The Cathedrals, Abbeys and Churches of Britain Unveiled
Thomas Maude
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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England's Thousand Best Churches
How to Read a Church: A Guide to Symbols and Images in Churches and Cathedrals
The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals: A Study of Medieval Vault Erection
Building the Great Cathedrals
English Parish Churches (World of Art)

ASIN: 1860640397

Book Description

Visiting historic buildings is one of Britain's most popular pursuits. Visitors, however, are often frustrated by existing guidebooks, which assume much prior knowledge of architectural history and terms. This book presents a new look at cathedrals, abbeys and churches through the eyes of experienced stonemason, Thomas Maude. He uses historical and technical information, colourful anecdotes and his knowledge of building structures and techniques to convey the excitement which they hold in store.

Customer Reviews:

One of the first books to read about cathedrals and churches.......2006-03-02

Unlike so many books that I have read about churches and cathedrals, one will not need to keep an architectural dictionary or a reference book on the medieval church nearby as one reads. This will enhance both tours of the buildings and further reading. I will definitely keep this in my permanent collection.

Thomas Maude is a British stone-mason, and his love for his craft and the buildings that his fellow masons produced adds to the pleasure of reading.

The text is very well written, thorough and logically arranged. Maude works his way through the main structure of a cathedral, church or cloister in a way that is easy to follow and accompanied by well-chosen illustrations. He begins with Norman building styles and follows carefully through the developments in Gothic architecture. He explains the various types of building materials available in Britain, the daily offices of worship, the changing uses of various parts of the building (weddings used to be on the church porch, for example.)

The photography is all in black and white, except for the cover, and is generally very good with many excellent detail shots.

Extremely informative and a delight to read.

Broad array of topics and easy to understand.......2003-02-18

Even though the book is very nice and recommendable, it does not go into too much details. What I liked the most is that Mr. Maude covers some aspects in the design of the cathedrals and churches hardly to find in other books related to mediaeval architecture. I would recommend this book for someone looking for learning the basics and one who appreciates the religious lifestyle that prevailed at that time as an important factor for the design and construction of this sort of buildings. The explanations given by Mr. Maude concerning the physics used by the master builders to understand the behavior of walls, flying buttresses, arches, and other construction elements are very easy to follow. Definitely this is a book for a person who has just started into this wonderful subject of medieval construction.

Everything you always wanted to know about cathedrals ..........2001-12-06

The strength of the book is Maude's hands-on experince, which he uses to illuminate a lot of material. The book could be a bit clearer in places, and could use some labelled diagrams. He does not cover the structural aspects in detail (see the very difficult The Stone Skeleton for that) but explains a lot of stuff I haven't found elsewhere (what for instance is a 'rood'.)

Guided By A Stone Mason,By Thomas Maude.......2000-12-17

An excellent book about the history and construction of medieval churchs,abbeys,and cathderals.

The author , a working stone mason who has worked on the repair and restoration of these ancient buildings,gives insights into the development and technical details that went into creating these masterpieces.

The author's admiration for these builders is reflected in his discussion of the problems they encountered and how they arrived at solutions to create these masterpieces which have been handed down to our modern generation.

In additon, he also gives valuable insights into the history of the ancients times based on his intimate knowledge of the work undertaken by the builders.

The book is well illustrated with discriptive captions and is easily understood by the layman reader. I would highly recommend this book to any one who is interested in the medieval churchs and cathedrals of Britain.

Drawing for stonemasons: Containing a description of the construction of the subject of each study and the method of drawing it; with elementary lessons ... and a concise history of the art of masonry
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Drawing for stonemasons: Containing a description of the construction of the subject of each study and the method of drawing it; with elementary lessons ... and a concise history of the art of masonry
Ellis A Davidson
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00087WVBQ

The Employment of Sculptors and Stonemasons in Venice in the Fifteenth Century (Outstanding theses in the fine arts from British universities)
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The Employment of Sculptors and Stonemasons in Venice in the Fifteenth Century (Outstanding theses in the fine arts from British universities)
Susan Connell
Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0824000862

Customer Reviews:

"Spoon River for Today".......2002-02-22

Growing up across the river from the spot where Edgar Lee Masters' "Spoon River Anthology" was set, I was fascinated with this book and continue to dip into it today after discovering it several years ago in New York. The author was one of the first towrite of AIDS in this form, and it's full of humor, pathos, beauty.

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Destination Champagne
Philippe Boucheron
Manufacturer: Wine Destination Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0954979907

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Birch Common
Rose Boucheron
Manufacturer: Piatkus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0749906006

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BOUCHERON
Unknown
Manufacturer: Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000S6J9G2

Average customer rating:

Boucheron
Gilles Neret
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Jewelry | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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The Butterfly Field (Magna Large Print General Series)

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The Butterfly Field (Magna Large Print General Series)
Rose Boucheron
Manufacturer: Ulverscroft Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
ASIN: 0750513594

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By the River
Rose Boucheron
Manufacturer: Ulverscroft Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0750521406

Christie's Important Jewels [New York, 5 Dec. 1984, Sale 5790]

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Christie's Important Jewels [New York, 5 Dec. 1984, Sale 5790]

Manufacturer: NY: Christie"s
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000CONR04

Product Description

294 lots; 147 pgs.; Index; illus. in color & b/w. Pieces by Cartier, Boucheron, Bulgari, Mauboussin, Piaget, Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels ...

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Cypress Grove
Rose Boucheron
Manufacturer: Piatkus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0749908319

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De Thoma Valperga Calusio.
Carl Boucheron
Manufacturer: Taurini: Chirio & Mina 1833.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L68AYG

What's Wrong at Wal-Mart?: Is America's Greatest Success Story Going Down the Tubes?
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What's Wrong at Wal-Mart?: Is America's Greatest Success Story Going Down the Tubes?
Avis-The Greeter
Manufacturer: Hamco Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Retailing | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0965837203

Book Description

Winner of the Margaret Mead Award of the Society for Applied Anthropology

The farm crisis of the 1980s was the worst economic disaster to strike rural America since the Depression—thousands of farmers lost their land and homes, irrevocably altering their communities and, as Kathryn Marie Dudley shows, giving rise to devastating social trauma that continues to affect farmers today. Through interviews with residents of an agricultural county in western Minnesota, Dudley provides an incisive account of the moral dynamics of loss, dislocation, capitalism, and solidarity in farming communities.

Customer Reviews:

painful descriptions of loss in the heartland.......2000-07-06

If you've ever gone through hard times and felt like the world was standing in judgement, you have a sense of what the people in this book went through losing their farms. I grew up in farmland and have some sense of how fully peoples lives were tied up in their farms. For all those who see the modern economy as cool darwinian survival of the fittest, Dudley offers up a more plausible alternative: failure is often arbitrary or--worse--prompted by poorly thought out policies. The resulting pain of failure for those who experience the judgement is profound because so many see failure and success in moral terms. I'm still mulling the final message--that the unsympathetic judgement of those who get the short end of the economic stick *is* the American way. I can think of some counter-examples, but for the most part it rings true. Curious what others think.

Handbook for Single Adoptive Parents
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Handbook for Single Adoptive Parents

Manufacturer: National Council for Single Adoptive Parents
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Accessories:

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0963404539

Book Description

In the late 1870s the British Imperial administration in the Cape colony in southern Africa began to view the Zulu kingdom as a challenge to their authority.To contain this perceived threat, they engineered a war. The early campaigns went terribly wrong, with the decisive Zulu victory at Isandlwana. Ultimately however, the British won the war. The Zulus, primarily reliant on their skill with the stabbing spear, had no real defence or retaliation against the massed firepower of professional British soldiers. Ian Castle examines the British-Zulu war and its two key battles, Isandlwana and Khambula, with excellent black and white photographs accompanying the clear and detailed text.

The rise of the outer continents: The United States, Asia and Africa, 1870 to the present day,
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The rise of the outer continents: The United States, Asia and Africa, 1870 to the present day,
A. J Marcham
Manufacturer: Harrap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006BY2SE

Book Description

"Well-written. The picture emerges of a complex personality . . . a failure at several businesses but an astute judge of people . . . always happiest when roaming the woods and fields, and painting."
-David Allen Sibley (author of The Sibley Guide to Birds), The Boston Globe

Audubon's Elephant was the name given to John James Audubon's greatest work, The Birds of America-a folio of 435 life-size ornithological prints that would prove the most enduring depiction of birdlife in the United States. In 1826, still hard at work, his ambition threatened to exhaust the largesse of American aficionados and, seeking funds and fame, Audubon made his first trip to England.

British naturalist Duff Hart-Davis tells how Audubon's exotic woodsman's charm and astonishing artistic gift won him the attention of the aristocracy and an admiring public at a time when Americans in Britain could still cause a stir. Ultimately, his impassioned presentations to rooms full of smitten bird lovers helped him raise the funds he needed to complete The Birds of America. Lavishly illustrated with images from Audubon's life and work, Audubon's Elephant is an inspired depiction of the most important chapter in the life of America's most famous naturalist.

Duff Hart-Davis, himself a naturalist, has written a lively, highly engaging biography of Audubon’s heady and memorable days as a great American artist abroad.

Customer Reviews:

An American Classic From England.......2004-07-11

Let us say the Book Fairy comes and says you can be given one book, any book you want. Here's my advice: take John James Audubon's _The Birds of America_. Of course you want the original edition, the volumes that appeared between 1826 and 1838. Not only is it one of the most beautiful books ever printed, if you get tired of it, you can sell it. The last one that came up for sale, in 2000, went for $8.8 million. Just about everyone knows about this book, or has seen reprints from it, and has heard of Audubon (perhaps because of the Society that bears his name) and associates him with birds. He has had several biographies, but _Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America_ (Henry Holt) by Duff Hart-Davis takes a specific look at the extraordinary book, and how _The Birds of America_ could not have been made in America.

Audubon's own adopted country had no room for his huge project of a book to show all the birds of America life sized. Naturalists at the time actively discouraged anyone's support of Audubon's efforts, and there were not printers up to the task. So in 1826, Audubon sailed with his big watercolors to England. He became a celebrated American rustic, captivating the town of Edinburgh. He went about carrying his huge portfolio which weighed nearly a hundred pounds, slung over his shoulder. The first printer of the work, having see it, responded, "My God! I never saw anything like this before." He was right; Audubon's pictures had size, drama, and color no previous bird pictures even hinted at. The pictures caused a sensation, and Audubon was caught in a whirl of dining and socializing that he enjoyed enormously. The enormous work of getting subscribers, printing the pictures, and getting a team of colorists to hand tint each one was more than Audubon had counted on. He wrote, "I am thrown into a vortex of business that I never conceived I could manage."

Audubon and conservation have become synonymous, but his process of making his art will appall those many who belong to the Society bearing his name. Audubon probably killed more birds than any man in history, saying, "I call birds few when I shoot less than one hundred per day." He liked painting birds in action, but he posed them that way, killing them and mounting them so he could get the action stilled. A companion complained about Audubon working on his turkey painting, "The damned fellow kept it pinned up there till it rotted and stunk. I hated to lose so much good eating." Audubon kept a golden eagle in a cage to observe it, and having it seen alive sufficiently, tried to suffocate it with charcoal smoke, and when that did not work, pierced it through the heart with a pointed steel needle. As Hart-Davis realizes, Audubon did not lust for blood, but for knowledge. Imparting that knowledge through his art was his great goal, magnificently realized. _Audubon's Elephant_ is a much smaller volume than the original it describes, but it is still handsomely produced on fine paper and with fittingly copious illustrations. It is a vibrant account of an artist accomplishing his dream.

Duff Hart-Davis. Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America.(Book Review): An article from: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada
Average customer rating:
Duff Hart-Davis. Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America.(Book Review): An article from: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada
Eric Swanick
Manufacturer: Bibliographical Society of Canada
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B00082KTGK
Release Date: 2005-07-31

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, published by Bibliographical Society of Canada on March 22, 2004. The length of the article is 698 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Duff Hart-Davis. Audubon's Elephant: America's Greatest Naturalist and the Making of the Birds of America.(Book Review)
Author: Eric Swanick
Publication: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2004
Publisher: Bibliographical Society of Canada
Volume: 42 Issue: 1 Page: 90(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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