Brasses

Résumé

"Brasses" by J. S. M. Ward is a handbook on monumental brasses written in the early 20th century. Aimed at general readers, it explains what brasses are, how to classify them by historical period, and how to read their artistic and archaeological details, with many examples drawn from the author’s own rubbings. The focus falls on English brasses—contrasted with Continental work—and on how to identify armour, costume, ecclesiastical vestments, inscriptions, and canopies. The opening of the volume states its purpose and method, then moves chronologically from the earliest English brasses to outline how armour evolves (from mail to plate, through camail, jupon, taces and later peascod cuirasses), how women’s headgear and dress change (wimple, horned/mitred and butterfly styles, then kennel hoods and farthingales), and how civilian types (notably woolmen and lawyers) appear. It surveys clergy in mass, choir, and academic dress; bishops and abbots; monastic pieces and vowesses; and explains “palimpsest” brasses reused after the Dissolution. Tudor chapters note a great rise in output, heraldic tabards and armorial mantles, chrysom children, and the transition under Edward VI and Mary; Elizabethan and Jacobean sections describe wall-mounted plates, ruffs and tassets, and a partial revival before Caroline decline. Special motifs (Trinity, Annunciation, Resurrection scenes, hearts, shrouds, skeletons) are outlined, as are the Flemish and North German schools that influenced a handful of English examples. The section closes by turning to architectural features, especially canopies, which frame many of the finest compositions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)