Evidence For the Minor Funerary Monument Industry 1100–1500

Brass engraving was an urban activity, often employing a high degree of standardization and mass production techniques, though the manufacturers depended on the country for part of their production process and much of their market. It originated in England c.1270 and was dominated by the London-based Purbeck marblers, though regional schools became more successful after c.1450. The Purbeck marblers traded in other products including prestigious incised and cross slabs, many carved in or near quarries around the village of Corfe Castle (Dorset). Following the decline of the market for Purbeck monuments in the early to mid 14th century, the midlands alabasterers were the main producers of incised slabs in England, probably working both at the rural quarry sites and in nearby towns. Other regional workshops are known, but many incised slabs were the products of quarry workshops responsible for a wide range of artefacts. Only the Purbeck and Barnack (Northamptonshire) workshops marketed cross slabs over a wide area. Particularly in areas where workable sandstone or limestone was available locally, there was a multiplicity of countryside quarry-based workshops making cross slabs, whose repertoire extended to a variety of monumental types amongst other products

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Humanities · Minor (academic) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Historical Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History

• Theory, Disciplinary Perspectives and the Archaeology of Later Medieval England

  Aleksandra McClain•Medieval Archaeology•2012

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