et Mijnwezen in Ned. Ind._
(Amsterdam, 1877-1884).

BANKER-MARKS, or Masons' Marks. The "banker" is the stone bed or bench upon
which a mason works, hence the term (so well known to the trade) of
banker-marks, which, as Mr Whitley has pointed out, is more appropriate
than that of masons' marks, since the setters, who are usually selected
from amongst the best workmen, make no marks upon the stone (_Leamington
Spa Courier_, 11th of August 1888). These must not be confused with other
marks sometimes cut on stones as directions to the setters, and so used and
employed to the present time. Banker-marks are met with throughout the
civilized world, and in fact are to be found on all old buildings of
consequence, ecclesiastical or otherwise. Professor T. Hayter Lewis well
observed, "Go where you will, in England, France, Sicily, Palestine, you
will find all through the buildings of the 12th century the same carefully
worked masonry, the same masons' tool-marks, the same way of making them."
Such masons' marks are to be traced graved on all the chief stones of what
is known as Norman work. Norman tooling, so far as Hayter Lewis could
discover, came from the north and west of Europe. Since then we get marks
made with a "toothed chisel," but however or wherever chiselled the
intention was the same. The system followed provided an infallible means of
connecting the individual craftsman with his work, an evidence of identity
that could not be gainsaid.

Naturally, because of their simplicity, certain designs were followed much
more frequently than others, while occasionally some of a very elaborate
character are to be detected. Undoubtedly not a few were suggestive of the
initials of the names of the masons, and others were reminiscent of certain
animals, objects, &c., but no proof has yet been offered of their being
alphabetical in design, or arranged so as to distinguish the members of
different lodges or companies; the journeymen selected any design they
cared to adopt.

Singular to state, marks were chosen by gentlemen and others [v.03 p.0319]
who joined the operative masonic lodges of the 16th and later centuries,
and they were as carefully registered in the mark-books as those selected
by operatives for trade purposes. The same marks are to be seen in the
registers used by fathers and sons, and not always with a slight
difference, as some have stated, to secure identification. What should be
noted also is that other trades