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A wooden mallet with a stone chisel, marking a mason.
Also known as: Stonemason's tools, Mallet and chisel on a grave
A mallet and chisel. Genuinely ambiguous in a way most trade motifs are not: they are the working tools of a stonemason, and they are also emblems within Freemasonry, and a monument mason carving his own trade's tools is a third possibility again.
A wooden mallet and a stone chisel carved on a monument, the working tools of a stonemason.
Contexts: History
Genuinely ambiguous. The same tools are emblems within Freemasonry, where they carry a moral interpretation, so a mallet and chisel may indicate a trade, a Masonic membership, or both.
The presence or absence of the square and compasses on the same stone is usually what settles it.
A monumental mason carving his own trade's tools on his own stone is a third and well-attested case, and such stones are often unusually finely cut.
A short-handled wooden mallet with a barrel-shaped head, shown with a straight steel chisel tapering to a flat cutting edge.
Masons' working tools appear both as a trade motif and within Freemasonry's emblem vocabulary.