House and Garden 
slightly reduced from 
their proper bulk, so as 
to permit the finished 
statue to assume the 
proportions of normal 
saints, stalwart knights, 
or robust ladies. 
In all of this work it 
should be borne in 
mind that the material 
used was sheet lead. It 
was pure, i. e. without 
alloy, and was made into 
sheets by being poured 
over a level table having 
slightly raised edges, 
upon which slid a guide 
regulating the thickness 
of the sheets. ’These 
were uneven at best, for 
the crude table could not 
produce a uniform thick¬ 
ness. It was not long, 
however, before mechan¬ 
ically perfect rolled or 
laminated lead came to 
be produced, — a material similar to the 
commercial sheet lead of today. But the 
material which the plombiers worked was 
still a sheet; it first took the form of a 
sheet, whatever shapes it 
was afterwards made to 
assume. 
'Toward the end of 
the fifteenth century this 
repousse work gave way 
to ornamentation in cast 
lead, properly so called, 
for the metal was cast in 
moulds of sand or stone. 
The repousseurs turned 
ambitiously to making 
all manner of statues by 
the new method. Some 
of these figures, dating 
from the commencement 
of the sixteenth century, 
can be seen on the roofs 
of the cathedrals at 
Amiens and Rouen. 
Several of the moulds 
also have been preserved. 
Those used in casting the 
pinnacles of the Hotel 
Dieu at Beaune may still 
be seen in that building. 
The laminated lead, says Viollet-le-Duc, 4 
concealed the faults of smelting which soon 
4 Dictionnaire Raisonne d’ 1’Architecture francaise du Xl c au 
XVI<- Siecle, Vol. VII. 
URNS OF “THE BASIN OF NEPTUNE,” VERSAILLES 
“the blackamoor” 
A Famous Figure of Lead in the Inner Temple Gardens , 
London 
37 
