Chats on Old Copper and Brass — Reading Notes

Bellfounding as a Collector's Entry Point

The excerpts devote substantial space to the craft of bellfounding, describing how founders tuned bells by 'turning and reducing their thicknesses at the right place in the bell's cone.' Burgess explains that the 'rich mellowness' of old peals is partly due to age, 'the exact influence of which is not fully understood.' He notes that founders recorded their work with inscriptions, names, and trademarks cast into the bell's surface, providing datable evidence for collectors. The text mentions specific bells: the Great Bell of Moscow (19 ft. high, 64 ft. circumference), St. Paul's five-ton bell, and the Grocers' Company bell cast in 1463. This section suggests that Burgess intended bellfounding as a model for understanding copper-alloy craftsmanship, though the catalog subjects list only 'Copperwork' and 'Brasswork' without singling out bells.

Alloy Composition and the Founder's Secrets

Burgess repeatedly returns to the metallurgy of copper alloys. He states that 'a large percentage of copper gives a deep tone, whereas the greater addition of zinc and tin gives a sharper ring.' The text references 'Founders' Secrets'—a knowledge of metals that early bellfounders discovered 'intuitively, or as the result of accidental experiment.' The author emphasizes the critical moment of 'heating the molten metal to the correct temperature' when pouring into the mould. These technical passages align with the catalog subject 'Metal-work -- Collectors and collecting,' but the excerpts offer little on decorative brass or copper objects. Instead, they treat alloy composition as a practical concern for identifying and valuing metalwork, a perspective that may surprise readers expecting a broader survey of household curios.

Historic Bells as Tangible Evidence

The text catalogs famous bells by size and association: 'Peter' of York (ten tons), 'Big Ben' (fourteen tons), and the carillons of Mechlin (forty-four bells) and Antwerp Cathedral (sixty-five bells, the oldest dated 1316). Burgess notes that bells were often cast near their towers, as when the clock bell of Canterbury was 'recast in the Cathedral yard' in 1762. He also describes bells that passed from churches into lay hands, such as the one now owned by the Grocers' Company. These examples serve as concrete evidence of copper-alloy work across centuries, yet the excerpts do not discuss the collecting of smaller brass items like candlesticks or kettles. The catalog subjects list 'Brasses' and 'Copper,' but the surviving text leans heavily toward monumental bells rather than the portable objects a collector might acquire.

Readers approaching Chats on Old Copper and Brass should expect a work that privileges bellfounding and large-scale metalwork over the domestic copper and brass items its title suggests. The excerpts reveal a technical interest in alloy composition, founder's marks, and historic bells, with less attention to the decorative or utilitarian objects that might fill a collector's cabinet. The book's value lies in its period perspective on metal craftsmanship, grounded in museum examples and founder lore, rather than in a comprehensive guide to collecting.

Reading about Burgess’s bellfounders, I kept thinking how much the sound of those old metals tells us about a place. It reminded me, strangely, of standing in a Spanish cathedral, the same weight of history overhead. There is a gentle melancholy in tracing these crafted echoes. That feeling lingers with the Cathedrals of Spain — Reading Companion, too—a quieter sort of reverence I never quite shake.