I’m sure that stonecutter John Kirk spent at least the better part of May 3rd, 1890 making this — not a gravestone, but a miniature of one.

Four stacked pieces of gray veined marble, carved to assemble into an obelisk monument complete with pointed finial, molded base, and incised ornament on every face: Gothic foliage, a cross beneath a banner reading “DELIA,” a tablet reading “REST,” a mourning dove among willow branches, two figures flanking a funerary urn. The whole vocabulary of Victorian grief, in your hand.

End-of-day work. Signed and dated in full.