How many of us use the word brass in our daily vocabulary? It's not as though brass bands just saunter past us as we shop in the mall, or play our favourite tune to get us out of bed in the morning, is it? The word just doesn't give us much opportunity to use it.
Brass, fortunately or unfortunately, is something we associate with bands, statues, plaques of honour - basically, anything that fits in or around the term 'old-school.' Brass has a regal quality, doesn't it? It can't help but give off a respect-me, I'm-older-than-you vibe as it sits on grandma's mantle. Why is that? What is it about brass?
Brass is not actually nature's creation; it's an alloy of copper and zinc. Man invented brass - wait for it - primarily to bring affordable beauty into homes across the world. How sweet its origins are: created as an anecdote to pretty up the homes of those who could not afford more precious metals like gold.
Brass is the missionary of the metal world, doing its level best to make-up for what nature left out. Maybe that's why it commands our respect...
Brass has a bright, gold-like appearance and has superb anti-friction qualities. That is why, people, brass is the metal of choice for locks, gears, bearings, doorknobs...the list goes on... ammunition, valves; for plumbing and electrical applications and, of course, musical instruments. Why instruments? Because, as well as being having high shine and anti-friction properties, brass has stellar acoustics.
What a life-enhancing metal? Now that you've seen that list, you can just picture that brass Yale lock on your door, or the brass pipes that protrude from the storage heating press where you keep your towels. What about those high-shine door knobs in your aunt's period mansion? Yes, you now realise: brass is everywhere. We just don't notice it because we use it for things we take for granted. With one exception: high-end interior decor furnishings.
No one forgets the house decorated by the lady with taste; how guilt-edged leaves beautified high, vanilla walls, how the framed art transported you to the bliss dimension, or how sitting along the fireplace sill, a Baldwin brass candlestick stood in all its glimmering glory. Brass furnishings denote taste, good taste. In a world that has lost its style to cow-print and tacky fluff, brass offers a return to sanity; a way out of the madness that swallowed up elegance.
