Grinling Gibbons

Grinling Gibbons was a woodcarver and sculptor, born in Rotterdam to English parents, who came to England in his teens and was discovered by the diarist John Evelyn carving in a cottage in Deptford. He became the greatest woodcarver of his age, making astonishingly lifelike garlands of fruit, flowers, birds and lace in limewood. He worked for Christopher Wren on the choir stalls of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and at Hampton Court, Windsor Castle and Kensington Palace, and became Master Carver to the Crown. Petworth House has the finest of his carved rooms, and the V&A holds his carved limewood lace cravat.