Grinling Gibbons – the Michelangelo of wood – was an astonishingly talented English wood carver and sculptor of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, used much by Christopher Wren and significantly at Petworth House.
One of his most famous pieces – later owned by the collector Horace Walpole and worn by him as a joke to some visiting foreign visitors – was this wonderful limewood lace collar, now in the V&A.
I have previously posted about the stone font allegedly by him at the City church of St Margaret Lothbury – but it is not proven.
Earlier this week I dropped by another City church – St Margaret Pattens by Mincing Lane – and met the administrator Chris, who had a long chat with me.
As I was leaving he said “Do you know about the Grinling Gibbons carving?”
I had no idea about it, and joked that many people believed they had it without real evidence.
He then showed me by the altar a section of wood carving – shown here – and explained what he had learnt.
Apparently a wood restorer had visited the church and pointed out that this was the secret sign of Grinling Gibbons handicraft in a building.
Somewhere in the commission he would leave an open pea pod.
If there is a pea missing from the pod, as in this case, he left the building happy, presumably having been paid on time in full.
If not, he kept the pod empty.
It’s a nice tribute to the generosity of the church that he was clearly grinning when he finished his work here!
