[f. BANK sb.2 bench; in senses a, b. perh. a perversion of It. banco a (statuary’s) bench.]
a. A wooden bench used in bricklaying for dressing bricks. b. A stone bench used by masons for hewing on. c. A local name for a pile of Purbeck stone from the quarry.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 246. A Banker, to cut the Bricks upon, which is a piece of Timber about six foot long … fixt … about three foot high from the Floor.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 167, note. A Banker in a mason’s yard is a square stone of a suitable size, made use of as a work bench.
1832. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), I. 46. The Master builder … once laid a shilling on his ‘banker.’
1881. Daily News, 5 Sept., 6/3. The immense masses of stone called ‘bankers’ that line Swanage shore.
1885. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 244/1. The stone … has to be removed from the ‘bankers’ in carts.
