Chats on Old Copper and Brass

by Fred. W. Burgess

Dialling.—A dial plate is made by fixing to a flat surface a stile or gnomon, which forms with the horizon an angle equal to the latitude of the place in which it is to be used. When the gnomon is in position a line is drawn upon the surface of the plate so that the shadow of the stile falls exactly upon it at noonday, the plane through the stile and the sun coinciding with the meridian. It cannot be too clearly understood by users of old sundials that dial plates used in any other latitude than that for which they were constructed must necessarily be inaccurate.

Ember Tongs.—These little tongs were formerly used to take up the hot embers from among the ashes of a dying fire. They were constantly in use in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many being decorative, the handles often being fashioned to serve the purpose of a pipe stopper.

Enamels.—The enamels applied to copper or brass are glass coloured with oxides of metals, producing blue, green, violet, red, and other shades. These when fused adhere to the metal surface and are very lasting. Various processes have been adopted, especially in the fine arts. The principal older processes are champlevé, cloisonné, and Limoges. In the first named the spaces to be filled in with enamels are cut into the metal foundation; then, when the enamels have been fired, they are rubbed down and polished. The cloisonné process, chiefly practised in the East, consists of small cells or cloisons formed of wire filled with the requisite colours. Limoges enamels, the finest period of which is placed in the sixteenth century, were formed by a ground of enamel painted over, chiefly with classical subjects.

Opaque enamels on, usually, a convex copper disc or plate, were the work of later craftsmen. At Battersea and Bilston in England, towards the close of the eighteenth century, many small boxes and trinkets (see [p. 356]) were produced. The enamels of recent date applied to utilitarian objects and cooking vessels are seldom fixed upon a ground-work of copper—iron or steel being the usual base. In jewelry and small trinkets enamelling on copper is still practised, many such objects being of Oriental origin.

Fibula.—A small brooch or buckle. Many of the beautifully fashioned fibulæ have been found among the remains of Roman London, a large number being on view in the Guildhall Museum.

Gipciere.—A kind of pouch formerly worn at the girdle, an early type of purse. The name is sometimes spelled gipser.

Hookah.—The name given to the bottle through which tobacco smoke is passed. In smoking with a hookah the smoke is cooled by being made to pass through water.

Latten.—The name is primarily derived from the nature of the material—thin sheets. The brass or latten brass was formerly used chiefly for making church utensils. Black latten consists of milled sheets of brass, composed of copper and zinc; roll latten, of metal polished on both sides; and white latten of brass and tin.

Meander.—A term applied to the decorations on Japanese and other bronzes. To wind, to twist, meandering like the winding river Maeander, in Phrygia, from which the proverbial term is derived.