While studying literature in England in the 1970s, David Esterly walked into a London church and had “a sort of conversion experience.” It wasn’t the liturgy that moved him, but the deep-relief floral altarpiece carved in limewood by 17th-century master Grinling Gibbons.

Esterly’s first impulse was to write a book about Gibbons. To better understand the carving, he bought limewood and chisels and began trying it. Esterly had always assumed he had no artistic aptitude, but inching along by trial and error he was soon so deeply immersed in carving that he abandoned the book. And before long, without a day’s instruction, he was making his living as a carver.

In the decades since, he has dedicated himself to the astonishingly deep, detailed, and delicate style that Gibbons pioneered. Now living in upstate New York, Esterly carves all his pieces, as Gibbons did, from European linden, or limewood—a cousin of American basswood but better for this sort of carving—and leaves them without finish. In 1998, Esterly returned to London to curate the Gibbons exhibition at the renowned Victoria and Albert Museum—and he wrote the accompanying book.

An inside look at Esterly’s carving techniques: How They Did It: The Carving Demystified

From Fine Woodworking #197

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