brass

During the 14th and 15th centuries gisants or funerary brasses were often used as memorials for knights and their consorts. These plates were constructed in pieces of sheet brass and installed in the floor of a local church in remembrance of the knight's deeds. Often highly detailed, they are one of the better references for what armour looked like during the transitional period , when few actual examples of the armour have survived. One must use caution when dating armour using a funerary brass, however, because a knight was generally depicted in his own harness , which might be as much as forty years out of date at the time of his death. In modern times, these brasses have been the base upon which the popular brass rubbings are made, a process by which a wax crayon is used to take an impression of the knight. Many English and French churches produce income by selling finished rubbings of the brasses in their floors or sell the components and allow tourists to take their own rubbings.