[MR] "New" Book on Tomb Brasses

[Garth Groff]

Noble Friends,

"New" in the UVA library: A MANUAL OF MONUMENTAL BRASSES by Herbert 
Haines (ISBN 9780239000316; our call number NB1842 .H2 1970). This 
monumental book was originally printed in 1861, but reprinted by Adams & 
Dart in 1970. UVA has just added a gift copy to our collection.

Herbert's work consists of two sections. The second, and larger, part is 
a telegraphic catalog of all the tomb brasses he could locate throughout 
England. This is great if you want to track down brasses, or are doing 
genealogy, but not particularly useful to Scadians. The "lesser" part is 
an introduction running 263 pages. This section discusses the brasses as 
historical and artistic pieces, and is exhaustive. Of special interest 
are the hundreds of line drawings made from the actual brasses, which 
show period arms, armor, and both men's and women's clothing. Given that 
the death dates of the people commemorated by the brasses are given, 
these illustrations are a very useful tool for period costumers. The 
detail is very good, and there are some blow-ups of particular features.

This book is extremely useful for costumers, and those doing research 
into period armor. A paperback reprint is listed as available from 
Barnes & Noble's online store. An electronic version of the original 
from Harvard University is also available for browsing at: 
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/005856607 .

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Shire of Isenfir's Unofficial Librarian
(aka Garth Groff, UVA Library Cataloging & Metadata Services Dept.)