Memorial Brasses.

The visitor to the country church, as well as the larger cathedral, finds much antiquarian interest in the tombs and monuments, and in the memorial tablets of the illustrious dead the history of their lives may often be read. In the older tombs the work of the sculptors in marble is frequently enriched by the addition of appropriate tablets of brass, sometimes inlaid with enamels. One of the most noted tombs is that in the centre of the chapel of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey, the tomb itself being closely guarded by the massive railings, which are of brass. The visitor to that chapel notes with interest the brass stall plates so rich in enamels, on which are the arms and crests of the knights who in times past occupied those stalls and hung their banners over them.

FIG. 21.—BRONZE INCENSE BURNER AND INCENSE BOAT.
(In the Victoria and Albert Museum.)

It may be contended that tombs and monuments cannot be collected, but those who visit such places may fill their notebooks with interesting data, and they may carry away with them accurate records and rubbings of the monumental tablets and the brasses on the tombs (for instructions how to take rubbings, see Wrinkles, [p. 393]). Such rubbings of old brasses can be kept in a portfolio or mounted and hung upon walls. They form a record, too, of the engraver's art, which was modified and altered to suit the change which went on in architectural design and to some extent in social and religious customs. The variety of brasses is seen when a good collection of rubbings is classified and arranged according to style, period, or locality. Some districts yield prolific returns. Throughout the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, and Norfolk many may be obtained, the more interesting specimens being secured from tombs dating from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. From such a series armorial representation as it became less real and of smaller importance can be traced. The costumes of the period, too, are very clearly shown, for in such a collection of brasses the value of armour in war is seen to change. In the earlier examples there is the chain mail of the cross-legged knights as seen on the early brasses of the Crusaders, the mediæval armour of the Middle Ages when it had reached its strength, and the brasses of the Stuart days when the ornamental armour of that period had to a large extent lost its utility.

The ecclesiastical brasses on the tombs of bishops and other church dignitaries show the change which took place very gradually in the vestments worn, and indicate the alteration in ecclesiastical ritual in the cathedrals and churches at the time of the Reformation. The dissolution of the monasteries and the sacrilege which took place in the dismantled churches and religious houses caused valuable relics to be sold for old metal, and it was then that many old monuments and tombs lost their brasses. The influence of book knowledge and the change which came about in the style of script after the introduction of the printing-press is seen in the evolution of the lettering on church brasses. Indeed, in some of the older ones the form of the letters is the only indication left of the date of their engraving.

FIG. 22.—THE COPPER-GILT CROSS ON ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

The engraver's art progressed with the art of the period in which he lived, and in a collection of rubbings may be seen the gradual training of the eye and hand until from meaningless pictures without background or perspective the artist was able to engrave on metal a beautifully realistic picture of the subject he had chosen. As a guide to a few indications of the period to which brasses belong, it may be mentioned that the decorative canopies on monumental brasses belong chiefly to the ornate period of art. The embattled canopies and the change to the decorative Gothic tell of the progress in ecclesiastical architecture until it reached its height between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, later brasses telling of its gradual decadence. Of the variety of subject it would be impossible to refer, for at all ages there have been many who would fit into niches between the extremes of the early fighting men amidst the nobles and knights who fell in battle, and those who apparently lived all their lives in the peaceful rural surroundings of some quiet English village, dying within sight of the old church where they had worshipped, and where they were eventually buried.

"When some proud son of man returns to earth,

Unknown to glory, but upheld by birth,

The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,

And storied urns record who rests below;

When all is done, upon the tomb is seen,

Not what he was, but what he should have been."

Byron.

VIII
DOMESTIC
UTENSILS

CHAPTER VIII
DOMESTIC UTENSILS

The kitchen—The houseplace—Chimney and other ornaments—Classified arrangement.

A collection of metal-work representative of domestic utensils as they were fashioned in very early times, and as they were made in days so far forgotten as to render the common objects of daily use curios, is regarded, probably, as the most important branch of copper and brass, from a collector's standpoint. The collector may be content with gathering together a few examples of old domestic metal-work and using them as ornamental reminders of olden time, decorating his entrance hall or rooms furnished after the antique with the objects he gathers together, or he may arrange them as in a museum gallery. The display of curios is at all times a matter of taste, but it is one of some importance, especially in a branch of collecting so conspicuous as copper and brass. We can scarcely conceive of any real pleasure being derived from such a hobby, or of such specimens being appreciated by one's friends, when specimens so obviously out of place are shown in a modern dining-room or drawing-room furnished in nouvre art. The Keeper of the London Museum, now transferred to Stafford House from Kensington Palace, has very appropriately arranged the antiquities of London in their proper historical and chronological sequence, and has grouped them so that the reference they bear to contemporary surroundings can be understood by those who see them for the first time. The photograph which we reproduce in Fig. 23 represents a corner in a well made up seventeenth-century room, in which has been gathered together some beautiful old oak furniture of that period. It is panelled with oak which has been procured from old London houses of contemporary date; the doorway is a genuine antique from Bromley-by-Bow, adding to the appearance of the room, for its hinges and lock furniture are splendid examples of the brasswork of that period. Some pieces of Cromwellian armour, prominent among which are variously ornamented helmets and breastplates, are arranged round the upper portion of the room. Over an old oak chest is a beautiful brass skimmer, and on the wall a seventeenth-century brass bed-warmer, with engraved cover. On the sideboard is a huge key and a brass mortar. The lock furniture and the drop handle on the sideboard, which are of brass, are worthy of note. On the other side of the room there is a fine brass trivet standing in front of the hearth, on which are andirons, and logs ready for the firing; close by is a quaint old candlestick. Undoubtedly curios displayed in such a way interest and instruct those who see them, and a room so furnished enthuses collectors with the desire to secure other objects of an appropriate character; this in itself is an advantage in that a representative collection is of more general interest than one containing many objects of a similar character.

FIG. 23.—SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ROOM IN THE LONDON MUSEUM.