Company History of Fairplay Stonecarvers L.L.C.

Nick Fairplay is an architectural sculptor who specializes in hand carved stone and marble ornament. His expertise is in design and fabrication of museum quality sculpture in classical styles. As a European artisan and master carver with 31 years of carving experience, Nick's design and execution of period styles is unparalleled. Some of our past projects included key elements of Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Salisbury Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Yorkminster Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, numerous Abbeys and Parish Churches, the Houses of Parliament, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court, St. James' Palace, Kensington Palace, Palace of Westminster, various stately homes throughout England and private residences and public buildings in the United States. Our work ranges from statues, fireplaces and gargoyles to architraves, columns and capitals.

The President and Master Artisan of Fairplay Stonecarvers, L.L.C. is Nick Fairplay. Nick apprenticed, at the age of 16, as a stone carver at Chichester Cathedral in England. He worked on the reproduction of carvings for medieval and classical buildings. At the age of 22, he went to the City and Guilds of London Art College and studied life modeling and drawing. After receiving his degree, he won the Beckwith Travel Scholarship for drawing and studied Renaissance and Baroque Architecture and Sculpture in Rome, Italy.

As head carver, Nick instructed students and carvers while working for the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Cathedral Stoneworks at Carnegie Mellon University and Agrell and Thorpe, Ltd. In 1995, Nick was elected to become a member of the Association of Master Carvers in England. He also a professional member of the Stone Carvers Guild in the United States.

As a result of Nick's extensive knowledge of stone carving he was a consultant on stone monuments, tools and methods of ancient Egyptian pyramid builders for The University of Chicago Research team and for the filming of the NOVA Documentary on Phoronic Pyramid Construction for PBS.

Fairplay Stonecarvers was formed in San Francisco, California in 1997. We relocated to Northern Ohio in the spring of 1998.

Nick was the subject of a documentary, recently completed by Jeremy Newman (Director & Editor) called "Nicholas Fairplay: Stone Carver". The documentary "interweaves an English Master Stone Carver's creation of a seven-foot marble Venus with his thoughts on the ancient craft and his personal story." (excerpt from "Thoughts on a Recently Completed Art Documentary" by Jeremy Newman) The documentary is the product of a coordinated effort between Oberlin College faculty and students, Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum and Fairplay Stonecarvers. For more information please contact us at: meadows@fairplaystonecarvers.com

*Images-Marble Relief, Gothic Limestone Fireplace, Modern Limestone Fireplace. Our projects range from purely sculptural relief and sculptures to large solid construction fireplaces and finally, to the more eloquent and simple mantel with hand carved moulding.

About our Employees

Elizabeth Meadows is the Vice-President and Production Coordinator whose multi-task oriented position may include daily operations, design consulting, job pricing, marketing, stone carving finisher, toolsmith and photographer.
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