Brass Rubbings: Catalogue of Rubbings of Brasses and Incised Slabs. Victoria & Albert Museum. by Muriel Clayton

A brass rubbing is exactly what it sounds like – made by laying a thin sheet of paper over an incised slab such as a brass plate on a tomb, and rubbing over the whole surface with a wax crayon, whilst being careful to keep the sheet still. The wax crayon covers the surface of the paper, leaving an outline of the incised lines of the plate underneath. The hobby was extremely popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the V&A acquired a great number of examples in the 1920’s and 30’s.