Gravestone stencil

Gravestone stencil

Image Courtesy of: CAHS

Rare example of a Gravestone stencil

Gravestones throughout Australia are carved with beautiful Chinese characters providing us with the names and in many case the villages of those buried under them. How this carving was done simply involved a member of the Chinese community providing the inscription on a suitable piece of paper that the local headstone marker could then use to accurately carve in the Chinese. As with many such utilitarian objects that paper was then discarded. This is a rare chance survival of such a gravestone stencil.