Brasses

A growing fascination with England’s historic brass monuments finds a clear and friendly guide in this compact volume. Written for anyone curious enough to step beyond statues and stone, it explains how to recognize the main classes of memorial brasses and spot the essential details that set each piece apart. Drawing on the author’s own collection of more than fifteen hundred rubbings, the text blends personal observation with careful scholarship, offering a practical doorway into a field once limited to specialists.

The book walks through England’s brasses in chronological order, from the early Plantagenet era through the Tudor and Caroline periods, before branching into special types, foreign examples, and the architectural settings that frame them. Richly illustrated with the author’s own images, each chapter is organized by historical reign rather than arbitrary categories, making the material intuitive for the everyday listener. A concise bibliography and index round out the work, inviting further exploration after the first listen.