explore the carvers - travels

Within the three Confidence groups the designs on each capital have been separated into five levels of Certitude. This separates carvings that could reasonably be attributed to an individual carver from those that have only minimal relationship to any original template. Those few noted '!!' are the core for identification and were most probably carved by the same man, while those noted '??' were clearly carved by others using a similar design. The inbetween indicate various levels of certainty.

The assessments have been made by examining how closely a capital has followed the template in the '!!' group, the manner of carving and the decorative niceties. '!!' (and to a lesser extent '!') form the core group, and the rest are less likely candidates.

Those that look as if they were produced by a student are usually noted '?' or '??'.

This work is presented publicly in spite of its many imperfections so you may assess progress to date. I have used names so they are easier to remember, but each could represent a template used by many.

Enjoy the beauty and skill in these capitals that has held me captivated for over fifty years.Confidence filters the carvers listed in the left column. They are all the carvers/manners that I have been able to gather so far, and named. They are displayed in the following three levels that reflect my confidence in the attributions.

** LOW Confidence: Similar in manner but clearly by many carvers: This is the first step to group capitals with similar templates, no matter how varied the detailing.

** MEDIUM Confidence: Similar with a possibility that the more Certain were the work of one team. In this second stage the individual carvers were separated from those by colleagues or by students.

** HIGH Confidence: Similar with a patent probability that many were carved by one individual.

The combination of High Confidence and the highest two levels of Certainty '!!' and '!' are the most realistic identifications of the carvers I have yet made.