Every fall, the Women for Music have a weekend book sale at the Halifax Forum. I attended for the first time in 2024, and I am glad that I did. I bought some very good books. The first one that caught my eye is featured in today’s musing. And it caught my eye right away because it is huge – 21” high, 14” wide and ¾” thick. When I was checking out, I was told that they almost didn’t bring the book since it was so big – they doubted anyone would want to cart it around. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it.
European Brasses; with an Introduction and Notes by A. C. Bouquet D.D.; in collaboration with Michael Waring Ph.D.; B.T. Batsford, London, 1967.
From the blurb - Here is reproduced a selection of the finest European and British Monumental Brasses. The large scale, and the fidelity of the photographic process, permit the reproductions to be, in effect, facsimiles. Although the survival rate of Brasses has been much lower in Europe than in Britain, the Continental examples are often superior in terms of size, detail and richness; a claim which is borne out here by illustrations from centres as widely dispersed as Bruges, Stralsund, Naumburg, Brussels, Cracow, Seville, Lubeck, Poznan, Altenberg, and Erfurt. Not since the nineteenth century have Continental Brasses been reproduced in any book in such impressive quality and profusion. The English examples, although generally more homely in subject and scale, still have virtues of their own. There is a significant contrast between the proud temporal and spiritual princes commemorated in so many European Brasses and the humbler knights, priests or laymen portrayed in Britain.
Dr. A. C. Bouquet, author of Church Brasses, introduces the book in an illuminating survey of the development of Monumental Brasses from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Commentaries on each of the illustrations give the reader a factual background concerning the date, location, occupation, and inscription of each brass.
Enjoy the following photos of these amazing drawings and note, that there was definitely a sense of humour, way back when!
