As you will have detected, I have become mildly obsessed by the question of attribution of the stone carving on the exterior of St. Paul’s, so much so that I went this morning to have another look at the carving of the cherubs I used for my Christmas card:-

As I thought, they are better – more life-like, with one of them in shallow half relief – than the majority of the other cherubs which are lively and robust, but much cruder:-

The location of the twin cherubs above is on the external wall of the chancel close to the east end, so in the area which seems to have been overseen by Thomas Strong before his death.

There was probably a difference between the work undertaken by Edward Strong after his father’s death – Edward was really more a building contractor than a mason, responsible for the organisation of labour and big teams of workmen (he was employing sixty five people in the 1690s), whilst Edward Pearce who took on a contract for the remainder of the south chancel was more of an artist, a member of the Painter Stainers Company before labour laws were liberated to allow skilled labour from outside London.

So, I hypothesise, without any evidence, that the putti are by Edward Pearce, a demonstration of his skill in order to win the contract for the next stage of building work. But I hope there is someone who knows better.