WOOD-CARVER IN ST. PAUL’S

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8612, 24 December 1913, Page 6

WOOD-CARVER IN ST. PAUL’S

FORTY YEARS ON DECORATIVE WORK. In comparative obscurity and unobserved by the crowd, says the “ Guardian/' ’ there has been working on and off for forty years in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, an artist in wood whose work may not inconceivably at some future generation become the subject of controversy. Somebody has suddenly become aware of the existence of Mr Thomas Colley, a wood-carver of no little merit. That his talent should have remained undiscovered and unappreciated by the multitude for so many years is indeed strange, for much of his work reaches a very high standard indeed, even in a Cathedral which contains so much work by Grinling Gibbons. At the present time Mr Colley is engaged on the decorative carving at the top of the oak pillars of the chapel of St. Dunsban. On the gate of the chapel of St. Michael and St. George he has carved the head of a cherub with such skill and ability as to make it difficult to distinguish the work from similar heads in the Cathedral which were the work of Gibbons or his contemporaries. Thirty-nine years ago he carved the panels and ceiling of one of the entrance lobbies of the Cathedral, ho has also work on the oak of the crypt chapel and also upon the choirstalls. Ho works also in stone, and has restored part of the figure of St. Paul on the exterior of the building.