David Esterly – författare

The highly acclaimed memoir of a renowned artisan with a new introduction by Jenny Uglow, The Lost Carving reveals the inspirational secrets of wood and craft. On a chance visit to St James's church, Piccadilly, David Esterly was awestruck by the delicate beauty and ambition of master carver Grinling Gibbons’s limewood decorations. The encounter changed the course of Esterly's life as he devoted himself to these lost techniques.By 1986, when a fire at Hampton Court Palace destroyed much of Gibbons’s masterpiece, Esterly was the only candidate to restore his idol’s work to glory, though the experience forced him to question his abilities and delve deeply into the subtle skills of making.

“A beautiful, intricate meditation on creativity and discovery, on fire and rebirth.” —Elizabeth GilbertAwestruck at the sight of a Grinling Gibbons carving in a London church, David Esterly chose to dedicate his life to woodcarving—its physical rhythms, intricate beauty, and intellectual demands. Forty years later, he is the foremost practitioner of Gibbons’s forgotten technique, which revolutionized ornamental sculpture in the late 1600s with its spectacular cascades of flowers, fruits, and foliage.After a disastrous fire at Henry VIII’s Hampton Court Palace, Esterly was asked to replace the Gibbons masterpiece destroyed by the flames.  It turned out to be the most challenging year in Esterly’s life, forcing him to question his abilities and delve deeply into what it means to make a thing well. Written with a philosopher’s intellect and a poet’s grace, The Lost Carving explores the connection between creativity and physical work and illuminates the passionate pursuit of a vocation that unites head and hand and heart.

'David Esterly's handsome book on Gibbons has been republished by the V&A with sumptuous pictures' Laura Freeman, The Times, 14th August 2021Reissued to mark 300 years since the death of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721), this study views the work of the greatest of decorative woodcarvers from the perspective of a fellow carver, the late David Esterly.Grinling Gibbons is famous for giving wood "the loose and airy lightness of flowers." His flamboyant cascades of lifelike blossoms, fruits, foliage, birds and fish dominate English interiors of the late seventeenth century. They are among the glories of Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace, and St. Paul's Cathedral, as well as Badminton, Burghley, Petworth, and other great country houses.A contemporary of Christopher Wren and of the diarists Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, Gibbons was part of the colourful world of Restoration England. His discovery by Evelyn in a tumble-down cottage near the River Thames was followed by a presentation to King Charles II, who rejected his early sculptural work. Gibbons responded by inventing his spectacular style of decorative carving. He was then rediscovered, reintroduced to the king, and launched into a triumphant career.After setting Gibbons in historical context, David Esterly's ground-breaking approach allows us to understand the process by which these exuberant carvings were created and how their forms reflect the organization of Gibbon's workshop. Esterly, a professional woodcarver who restored some of Gibbons' most important carvings, shares his unique knowledge of the layering process by which Gibbons built up such masterpieces as the Cosimo panel or the elaborate overmantels at Hampton Court Palace. Specially commissioned photographs show these carvings in a disassembled state, revealing the secrets of their construction. Esterly also discusses Gibbons' formidable carving techniques, and his tools, workshop practice, materials, and finishing are described in detail.This generously illustrated volume will have a special appeal for carvers as well as for those interested in seventeenth-century interiors and the decorative arts.