Clients inquiring about personal memorials often find Coffin after the immediate grief has passed. They are usually looking for a simple yet elegant stone composed of fine lettering and often symbols or decorative carving that have special meaning to the family. They seek a thoughtful and meaningful way to express the life and the loss of a loved one. Usually a client's general ideas quickly come into focus with the exchange of a sketch or two or a visit to Coffin's lettercutting shop on the coast of Maine.

24" x 38" x 2"
black slate
Concord, Mass.

This stone needed to match others in the family plot in size, shape lettering strengths and border. The deeply recessed center holds pine cones and needles.

8" diameter x 1"
black slate
Green Cemetery Stone

Green cemeteries are emerging as a choice in burials. The policies vary somewhat, but most green cemeteries do not allow embalming, concrete, steel or elaborate memorial stones. The idea is not to impede the body's return to the earth. This Green Cemetery allowed small, shallow, flush stones. This one will gradually sink deeper into the soil.

22" x 36" x 1 3/4"
black slate
Maine

The original memorial stones for E.B. White and his wife were carved in an inferior grade of grey slate and both had split prematurely. The family asked me to duplicate the original stones in the deep black, more durable slate of Monson, Maine.

24" x 43" x 2 3/4"
white marble
highlighted lettering

The client wanted holding hands. Usually hands come together palm against palm. I suggested these spooning, nesting hands which seemed more loving, more gentle and tender. There is something about the back of a hand that pushes us away. It is the palm that expresses and holds us. As personal as a memorial stone in a cemetery is, it is also a bit of a statement of belonging to a shared world and perhaps these hands are meant to include all of us, too.

38" x 42" x 2"
black slate

This couple was a real team. It was important to express this parity by the number of lines, words and the weight in each half of this double stone. His birth state was Connecticut, whose state tree is the oak. Hers is Maine, indicated by the white pine.

22" x 36" x 1 3/4"
black slate
highlighted lettering

This stone wanted the feel of an older stone. There were a lot of elements at work here and the trick was to make them all pull together. I dug deeply into the edges, raked the back bevel and textured the back in exactly the same way they would have dressed a stone four hundred years ago.

24" x 51" x 2"
variegated purple slate

Variegated purple slate has all kinds of interesting movement in it, particularly when the surface is carved in its natural, "riven" state. The carved perimeter molding nicely holds back the colors and natural cleft surface.

23" x 38" x 2"
black slate, carved ivy shoulders,
Mt. Auburn Cemetery,
Cambridge, Mass.

The book, open and deeply recessed, represents the importance of literature. Initially the smooth pages looked disappointingly blank. I used a toothed chisel to randomly texture the surface of the pages, making the book more vital and alive.

19" x 30" x 1 1/2"
mottled purple slate,
Maine

The client liked this somewhat old-fashioned shape. She also wanted to emphasize the importance of her mother's Catholicism so I suggested cutting the cross right through the stone. I was concerned that the cross might feel stingy, like a keyhole, going through all that thickness, so I recessed a panel in front and in back. Once the depth was girdled, I carved the cross through the full 1 1/2" and then split away the slate, leaving the pleasing, naturally-riven surface within both circular panels.

18" x 46" x 1 1/2"
variegated purple/green slate,
Pennsylvania

The wife of this young craftsman had clear ideas about her husband's stone. She wanted it tall and thin with personal symbols and lettering that harked back to more untutored days when various styles of lettering were more exuberantly integrated. The back of the stone is the natural riven surface with a strong bevel to the edges, accentuating the thinness.

This 33" diameter, perfect bowl is carved out of a very large, rough chunk of black slate. It is a horizontal memorial honoring residents of a safe home for single, pregnant women a century ago. The spiraling inscription reads: "Between 1902 and 1954 the Good Samaritan Agency of Bangor helped nine hundred and ninety-five young single women to give birth and care for their children in safety. One woman and eighty-five children remain here." The womb-like bowl fills with the water of life that protects the inscription and the stories of those buried here.

24" x 42" x 2"
black slate,
Maine

My client was not at all dissuaded when I explained that I could not "fake" the folkloric sincerity and spontaneity of a true seventeenth century deathhead. She wanted one, even if it was contemporary.

22" x 40" x 1 3/4 "
green slate,
Paris Hill, Maine

This couple is far from needing this stone, but wanted to take care of details while both were healthy and vibrant. The stone reflects the up-beatness of the commission in that the lilies-of-the-valley are vigorous, the name arches upward toward the crown, and the side "sprigs" are an added symbol of life. Pre-need stones are tax-deductible.

Most cemeteries have guidelines to help them ensure the responsible setting of the stones in their care. A few have very strict policies to follow. Coffin's method of installation is generally well-respected and accepted by cemeteries. Coffin pours two re-enforced concrete "shoes" that are pinned to the upright stone, spreading the weight and enabling it to rise and fall with the deep frosts of New England. It is a simple, non-interventive way of stabilizing an upright memorial and, for Coffin's purposes, lets him easily pull the stone later and carve an additional name and date with relative ease.

24" x 12" x 2"
black slate,
Belfast, Maine

I carved a surround ogee molding to further refine this elegantly simple stone. It is a set of four matching slates mounted on low, pitched granite bases, all in a line.

22" x 14" x 2"
dark green slate,
St. John's, Newfoundland

This is a small, but fine upright stone mounted to a green slate plate. The cross is 23 K gold (some cemeteries won't allow it) and will last, not forever, but for a long time.

24" x 14" x 1/2"
black slate,
Lewiston, Maine

I was very close to my grandmother. A fancy, Victorian shape suited her faded aristocracy. I designed this small stone to be installed several inches above grade and at a modest slant. It was easy to carve Family • Church • Community, but how could I express her wonderful sense of humor, delightful wit and her passion for all dogs? A small set of prints running right across the surface seemed appropriate.

38" x 28" x 3"
black slate,
Monson, Maine

The client wanted to recognize her husband's long involvement with wood products so I carved a somewhat formal crown of leaves on the front, ran them around the edges and turned them into a fall of leaves on the back.

24" x 40" x 2"
black slate,
Wayland, Mass.

The two images, a lobster and seagull, were important to my client. My job was to make them work. I made the seagull as airborne as possible by placing it high and splitting away the slate between the wings, taking whatever shearing the stone offered. The lobster was carved deeply into the stone…as if it were hiding at the bottom of the ocean.