Chats on Old Copper and BrassBurgess, Fred. W. (Frederick William)
History
Chats on Old Copper and Brass
Burgess, Fred. W. (Frederick William)
Brasses; Brasswork; Copper; Copperwork; Metal-work -- Collectors and collecting
During the last half-century simple statues erected to the memories
of noted politicians and military men in public parks, streets, and
open places, have been added to by more realistic groups. It would be
beyond the scope of this work to attempt categorical descriptions of
such bronzes to be seen in the public places of our great cities, and
it would be still more difficult to rightly classify them either in
their order of merit or of the appropriateness of their selection. It
seems justly fit that those who have been associated with the metallic
art should be commemorated in copper and brass. To Pittsburg belongs
the honour of having remembered the father of the art of hammering
into shape the metals. In that city, on a massive pedestal, stands a
colossal bronze figure of Tubal Cain, who, in his brief life's history
given in Genesis, is spoken of as an "artificer in brass." He fittingly
heads the list of metallurgists and scientists, to many of whom
monuments have been erected.
The use of bronze in monuments is not confined to figures of great
men, for bronze and brass ornament often adds to the magnificence of a
national memorial. As examples of the use of bronze for that purpose
mention may be made of the bronze lions, after Landseer, at the four
corners of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. The use of bronze,
as adding to the adornment or appearance of an antiquity in stone,
is exemplified in the two bronze sphinxes at the base of Cleopatra's
Needle on the Thames Embankment.
The bronzes of comparatively modern days are mostly the work of the
founder, cast after the sculptor has done his work. Some of the early
examples of Etruscan and Egyptian art consisted of bronze or brass
hammered into form by hand, or made of plates riveted together. Others
appear to have been beaten or embossed into high relief in a mould.
Some of the cleverest castings of bronze, however, are found in the
work of Eastern nations, the best examples being idols and temple
ornaments (see Chapter XIV).
Replicas in Miniature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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