The Brass rubbing reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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Brass rubbing

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Brass rubbing was originally a British mania for reproducing "brasses" -- commemorative embossed brass reliefs found in church memorials from the 14th and 15th centuries -- onto paper. The concept of recording textures of things is more generally called making a rubbing. What distinguishes rubbings from frottage is that rubbings are meant to reproduce the form of something being transferred, whereas frottage just desires to use rubbing to grab a random texture.

For more information see Monumental Brasses as Art and History ed. Jerome Bertram published by Alan Sutton.

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