Artificial flowers are imitations of real flowers, made of various materials. These are not a modern invention. The Romans excelled in the art of imitating flowers in wax, and in this branch of the art attained a high degree of perfection. The Egyptian artificial flowers were made of thin plates of horn stained in different colours, sometimes also of leaves of copper gilt or silvered over. In modern times the Italians were the first to acquire celebrity for the skill and taste they displayed in this manufacture, but they are now far surpassed by English and French manufacturers, but more especially by the latter. During the Victorian period cambric, muslin, satin, velvet, and other woven fabrics, feathers, india-rubber, blown glass, mother of pearl, brass, etc were all employed in making artificial flowers, later silk and plastic were more commonly used, and good results may be had from dyed wood. Research Artificial Flowers
Brasenose is one of the colleges of Oxford University, founded by William Smith, bishop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton, in 1509. The origin of the name is doubtful, but there is a large nose of brass over the entrance. The college is very rich in endowments. Research Brasenose
Brass was a British period situation comedytelevision show written by John Stevenson and Julian Roach, starring Timothy West and Caroline Blakiston, about the relationships between a rich family and a poor family in north-west England during the 1930s. Brass was aired from 1983 to 1984 and revived in 1990. Research Brass (TV)
The clog almanac was a square piece of wood, brass or bone about eight inches long which could be hung up in a room or fixed into a walking stick. It was a perpetual almanac showing the Sundays and other fixed festivals. Clog almanacs were introduced into England by the Danes. Research Clog Almanac
In sculpture, a colossus is a statue of enormous magnitude. The Asiatics, the Egyptians, and in particular the Greeks, have excelled in these works. The most celebrated Egyptian colossus was the vocal statue of Memnon in the plain of Thebes, supposed to be identical with the most northerly of two existing colossi (60 feet high) on the west bank of the Nile.
Among the colossi of Greece the most celebrated was the Colossus of Rhodes, a brass statue of Apollo 70 cubits high, esteemed one of the wonders of the world, erected at the port of Rhodes by Chares, 290 or 288 BC. It was knocked down by an earthquake about 224 BC. The statue was in ruins for nearly nine centuries, when the Saracens, taking Rhodes, sold the metal, weighing 720,900 lbs, to a Jew, about 653. There is no authority for the popularly-received statement that it bestrode the harbour mouth, and that the Rhodian vessels could pass under its legs.
Among the colossi of Phidias were the Olympian Zeus and the Athena of the Parthenon; the former 60 feet high and the latter 40 feet.
The most famous of the Roman colossi were the Jupiter of the Capitol, the Apollo of the Palatine Library, and the statue of Nero, 110 or 120 feet high, and from which the contiguous amphitheatre derived its name of Colosseum.
Among modern works of this nature is the colossus of San Carlo Borromeo, at Arona, in the Milanese territory, 60 feet in height; the 'Bavaria' at Munich, 65 feet high; the statue of Hermann or Arminius near Detmold, erected in 1875, 90 feet in height to the point of the upraised sword, which itself is 24 feet in length; the height of the figure to the point of the helmet being 55 feet;
the statue of Germania, erected in 1883 near Rudesheim, a figure 34 feet high, placed on an elaborately-sculptured pedestal over 81 feet high; and Bartholdi's statue of Liberty presented to the United States by the French nation, and which measures 104 feet or to the extremity of the torch in the hand of the figure 138 feet. It is erected at New York harbour on a pedestal 114 feet, is constructed for a lighthouse with what was at one time was one of the most powerful fixed lights in the world, and stands 317 feet above mean tide. Research Colossus
Cufic is a term derived from the town of Cufa or Kufa in the pashalic of Bagdad, and applied to a certain class of Arabic written characters. The Cufic characters were the written characters of the Arabian alphabet in use from about the 6th century of the Christian era until about the llth. They are said to have been invented at Cufa, and were in use at the time of the composition of the Koran. They were succeeded by the Neskhi characters, which are still in use. Under the name of Cufic coins are comprehended the ancient coins of the Mohammedan princes, which have been found in modern times to be important for illustrating the history of the East. They, are of gold (dinar), silver (dirhem), and brass (fals), but the silver coins are most frequent, and numbers of them have been discovered on the shores of the Baltic, and in the central provinces of European Russia. Research Cufic
The eugubine or Iguvine tables are seven tablets of brass engraved with inscriptions of ancient Umbrian, discovered in 1444 in a ruined theatre near Gubbio in Central Italy. They seem to have been inscribed three or four centuries BC, and refer to sacrificial usages and ritual. Research Eugubine
A foundry is a place where metal is melted and cast into the forms required in construction or decoration. Iron, brass, bronze, and type founding are special forms of the art. Research Foundry
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Artificial Flowers
