This New England

Comments and photograph by WILLIAM MORGAN

New England has always been known for its rich tradition of gravestone carvings -- the 18th-Century death's head and hour glass is one of the iconic sculpted visions of American art, not to mention the urns and weeping willows of the 19th Century.

But with the advent of pneumatic carving tools, 20th Century carving became less crude, more fanciful, but also less soulful, with all manner of incised effects coming out of, say, the Rock of Ages quarry, in Barre, Vt.

Now, laser ''cutting'' has opened up all sorts of visual possibilities, such as this picture of Portland Head Light, in Maine.

This beauty (or desecration, depending upon your aesthetic point of view) is for sale for $3,700 at the Peterborough (N.H.) Marble & Granite Works, an outfit that has been supplying tombstones since 1848. Never mind that we are many miles inland from the light house. Non-religious, post-card art for a departed loved one.

 Tags  Peterborough Marble & Granite Works Portland Head Light

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