342 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
BEST CEMETERY MONUMENTS OF THE YEAR 
Progress in Design Shown in Some Examples of 
the Best of the Ordinary Types of Monuments. 
jority. The close student of cemetery art, 
however, who notes the character of the 
monuments that have been erected in re- 
cent years, will find the general average of 
design much in advance of the standards 
of the days of the “old reliable’’ cap job, 
the cottage abortion that was about two- 
thirds bases and cap, and the jagged oceans 
of waves that surged as “rock jobs” over 
the helpless deceased. 
The older forms are being refined — 
some of them, happily, have been refined 
out of existence — lines are approaching 
more nearly to correct architectural pro- 
portions, and decorations are being de- 
signed to harmonize with the contour and 
character of the monument, and not mere- 
ly to provide so much extra work for the 
carver. 
In presenting here a few of the best 
monuments erected by representative firms 
in widely separated sections of the country, 
the high average of design and quality is 
distinctly noticeable. No effort has been 
made to secure the unusual, the elaborate 
or the expensive memorials that have oc- 
casionally been erected where unlimited 
funds and exceptional sculptural or de- 
signing talent were available, but rather to 
secure the better examples of the common, 
every-day types of cemetery monuments. 
They demonstrate in many cases what may 
be done in rendering the simple monu- 
mental forms into worthy artistic me- 
morials, and in a number of cases really 
original and artistic works of monumental 
architecture have been produced. 
The most distinctive types of the really 
beautiful forms of these simpler cemetery 
memorials in recent years are to be seen in 
the upright monumental tablet form of 
monument, the best examples of which 
have been developed along the lines of the 
beautiful German art designs that were in- 
troduced to American designers in the 
series that began in Monumental News 
some two years ago. Observant readers 
who are careful students of design will rec- 
ognize the influence of these German tablet 
forms in many of the finest of our present- 
day monumental tablets. The interesting 
architectural combinations of the different 
members and the variety of decorative 
treatment possible have aided in developing 
some really beautiful memorials of the up- 
right tablet type. 
A variation of this type has been devel- 
oped by a combining of the massive char- 
acter of the sarcophagus and lightness of 
the horizontal tablet into what might be 
termed a sarcophagus-tablet memorial. An 
interesting upright memorial that might be 
characterized as a squared sarcophagus or 
a lower “cottage” form will also be noted 
among the successful variations of our com- 
mon types. The horizontal tablet proper 
The best cemetery monuments of 1915, as 
we see them, show a distinct advance in 
artistic quality. Park and Cemetery has 
effect in examples of the best cemetery 
monuments erected in 1915. 
Progress in cemetery art is necessarily 
MONUMENTAL TABLET OF BEAUTIFUL DESIGN. 
Executed by McIntosh Granite Co., Ltd., Toronto. 
been optimistic enough to believe that 
standards of monumental design have been 
advancing for some years, and we are glad 
to have the opportunity of presenting to 
our readers some concrete .evidence to this 
slow, for monuments ordinarily last a long 
time, and the artistic monstrosities erected 
from five to fifteen years ago are still very 
much in evidence in a casual view of the 
cemetery — in fact, they are still in the ma- 
