Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
called Isaac James. He caught the eye of Master sculptor/mason, Hendrick
de Keyser (1515-1621) when he was working with Inigo Jones. De Keyser had
become architect to the city of Amsterdam in 1595, and along with the city's
Master Bricklayer, Cornellis Dankertz, were in England between April and June
1607. This was a working trip paid for by the city administrators to both meet
Inigo Jones and investigate the construction of the new Commodity Exchange
in London being built by Hendrick Van Passe. They took Stone back with them
when they returned to Amsterdam where he worked on the new Commodity
Exchange and, under De Keyser's tutelage, he advanced to the highest levels
of skill and architectural knowledge. He remained in Amsterdam until 1613;
when in the April of that year, he married De Keyser's eldest daughter, Maria,
her dowry being a large amount of Portland Stone from a quarry De Keyser
partly owned. Stone returned to London, taking premises at Long Acre, at the
behest of Jones who later appointed him Master mason on the Banqueting
House in Whitehall, London; on the building of which Stone used this dowry.
Stone had three sons - Nicholas (also a sculptor/mason), John (who was
educated for the church) and Henry who trained as a painter. After his death,
John and Henry, with Nicholas running the on-site activities inherited his
premises. A diary entry by Nicholas emphasises the on-going commercial, as
well as social, architectural and cultural connections with the Netherlands.
On 13 November 1646, he writes that Mr Henry Wilson of Petticoat Lane had
shipped 30 tons of Portland Stone to Amsterdam, to his uncle Hendrick de
Keyser, and that he was to have a third part profit (Knoop and Jones, 1937, 27).
The Stone's yard employed the finest masons, including Caius Gabriel Cibber
(1630-1700). After studying in Italy, Cibber travelled to Holland where he
came into contact with Pieter de Keyser, sculptor/architect and brother-in-law
of John Stone, and commenced working for him, first as a journeyman and
then as a foreman sometime before the Restoration. He later became one of
Wren's favourite mason carvers (Knoop and Jones, 1937, 26).
Nicholas Stone the Elder could not have been immune to, or unaware of, the
great craftsmanship of early seventeenth-century post-fired cut-moulded brick-
work that had been blossoming in the hugely influential city of Amsterdam
during his several years living and working there with Hendrick de Keyser.
He would naturally have sought to use brick in a similar high-class fashion as
a façade masonry material, whether to his own designs or that of another, such
as Jones.
An important and high-quality gauged brick construction with strong links
to the Stone family is the impressive rusticated, pedimented and arched brick
gateway at Chesterton (Warwickshire) (Fig. 39). The author advised on the res-
toration of the gauged work for the late architect Eric Davies, and the works
were carried out by Messrs Linford-Bridgeman in 1991, using rubbing bricks
from Bulmer Brick and Tile, Sudbury (Suffolk) (Fig. 40).
