The master mason's craft was very much a localised one, the materials he worked with to provide the building bricks and stone for village homes governed by the type he could quarry in and around his own community.  Some areas of England are based on granite, some on limestone, others on sandstone - all requiring the same skills but different techniques in fashioning anything from building blocks to tombstones.  And so a village in one county looked wholly different to that in the next, purely because of the type of stone it sat upon.  Primarily a hand craft, the master mason's home would be lined with tools with a stockpile of stone hauled from the nearby quarry ready to be worked.  Traditionally, he was equipped with many hammers and a variety of chisels, each one handed down through the generations and each designed to render a different finish to the basic stone.  He could split stone at one end of the scale and chip delicately the name of a late-lamented villager on a slab to mark his grave at the other.  The elaborate style of brickwork in the chimneys is the master mason demonstrating his skill and this practice is an early example of advertising.  The more ornate and clever the construction indicated the mason's degree of skill.

This piece is in very good condition.  I cannot see any chips, cracks, or breaks.  Comes with original box and COA.