There are great rewards to the difficult hobby that is brassing and you will hear the same thing from this one couple who find much joy in doing this. For them to introduce you to brassing you should be polite in asking. The process of brassing takes images of the flat metal figures commonly seen in tombs, images in stones in churches, and other decorative pieces from 13th to 17th Century England and transfers them to paper to make artwork that could be exhibited.
Here, the process may seem simple to do but the couple says that this is not the case. An Air Force base became the couple's new home when they moved about a year ago after spending four years in England. A lot of items including antique dishes, utensils, furniture, and other things have been obtained by this couple considering their interest when it comes to collecting antiques. Although brassing is unheard of in most parts of the United States, when the couple arrived in England they grew fond of the activity which was rather popular over there.
Either engraved flat brass portraits were placed on tombs or the floors of the nearby churches during the 13th Century as a way for the upper class English to honor their dead. There is special black paper that is used to line the brasses and this is rubbed by a special gold colored wax bar resulting to an image transfer.
Following the ridges in the brass the wax rubs off on the paper recreating a certain image. The couple brought back more than 200 of the paper images and one duplicate brass from the original monument. Treasured most by the couple was the brass of Sir John d' Abernon who died in 1277 in battle. Accommodating people who want to take rubbings off of this popular and earliest known brass requires making an appointment a couple of months earlier.
What the Vicars in charge of the brasses were strict about as the couple said was only permitting those who have experience to make duplicates of the brasses. When it comes to making copies of these the English are not as permitting nowadays requiring waivers stating the absence of intent to sell to be signed first especially after some Americans went there before and made duplicates then sold them for $2,000 each in New York.
Of the large number originally put down from 1250 to 1650, only about 8,000 of the monuments remain. Aside from being able to trace the development of armor and clothing historians have also been able to trace the development of lifestyle through these brasses as they unlocked clues from the monuments. Using these they were able to determine that a lion pictured at the feet of a knight means that he died in battle and a hound at someone's feet meant that he liked to hunt with dogs.
A new concept in the country that is the US is brassing considering how art is just catching up. The way to make copies of manhole covers, etchings on tombstones, and other decorative engravings is through rubbing. It's a fun hobby, although it took the couple four hours to complete the rubbing of Sir d' Abernon. Several schools and art shows have asked the couple to display their rubbings there.
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