The majority of extant memorial brasses are now found in England, where it is calculated that there may be about 4,000 still remaining in various churches. They are most abundant in the eastern counties of England, and this fact has been frequently adduced in support of the opinion that they were of Flemish manufacture. At the time when sepulchral brasses were most often fashioned, these eastern counties were a centre of commercial activity and wealth, and there are numerous engraved memorials of civilians and prosperous merchants in the churches of
Ipswich,
Norwich,
King's Lynn and
Lincoln. Flemish brasses can be found in England, but they are not common, and they are readily distinguished from English workmanship. The Flemish examples have the figures engraved in the centre of a large plate, the background filled in with diapered or scroll work, and the inscription placed round the edge of the plate. The English examples have the figures cut out to the outline and inserted in corresponding cavities in the slab, the darker colour of the stone serving as a background. This is not an invariable distinction, however, as figure-brasses of Flemish origin are found both at
Bruges and in England, but the character of the engraving is constant, the Flemish work being more florid in design, the lines shallower, and the broad lines cut with a chisel-pointed tool instead of the lozenge-shaped
burin. The brass of
Robert Hallum,
bishop of Salisbury, the envoy of
King Henry V to the
Council of Constance, who died and was interred there in 1416, precisely resembles the brasses of England in the details which distinguish them from styles elsewhere in Europe. Early examples that do survive include a fragment from the brass to Bishop
Thomas de Cantilupe (d. 1282) in
Hereford Cathedral; and brasses to Margaret de Camoys (d. 1310) at
Trotton, West Sussex; Joan de Cobham () at
Cobham, Kent; Archbishop
William Greenfield (d. 1315) in
York Minster; Sir William de Setvans () at
Chartham, Kent; and Sir Roger de Trumpington () in
Trumpington, Cambridgeshire. The life-sized brass of Sir John d'Aubernon II (d. 1277) at
St Mary's Church, Stoke d'Abernon in
Surrey has the decorations of the shield filled in with a species of enamel. Other examples of this occur, and the probability is that, in most cases, the lines of the engraving were filled with colouring matter, though brass would scarcely bear the heat requisite to fuse the ordinary enamels. Brasses become more numerous through the 14th century, and present great variety in their details. A good example is that of Nicholas Lord Burnell (d. 1382) in the
church of Acton Burnell, Shropshire. In the 15th century the design and execution of monumental brasses had attained their highest excellence. The brass of
Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick (d. 1401), and his wife Margaret, which formerly covered the tomb in
St Mary's church, Warwick, is a striking example. One of the best specimens of plate armour is that of Sir Robert Stantoun (1458) in
Castle Donington church,
Leicestershire, and one of the finest existing brasses of ecclesiastics is that of Thomas de la Mare, Abbot of
St Albans Abbey , South Yorkshire. They were later owners of
Broom Hall, Sheffield It is only in the 16th century that the engraved representations become portraits. Previous to that period the features were invariably represented conventionally, though sometimes personal peculiarities were added. A large number of brasses in England are
palimpsests, the back of an ancient brass having been engraved for the more recent memorial. Thus a brass commemorative of Margaret Bulstrode (1540) at
Hedgerley in
Buckinghamshire, on being removed from its position, was discovered to have been previously the memorial of Thomas Totyngton, abbot of
St Edmundsbury (1312). The abbey was only surrendered to
Henry VIII in 1539, so that before the year was out the work of spoliation had begun, and the abbot's brass had been removed and re-engraved to Margaret Bulstrode. These ancient brasses were often stolen and re-erected after being engraved on the reverse, as at
Berkhampstead, because until the establishment of a manufactory at
Esher in
Surrey by a German artisan in 1649, all sheet brass had to be imported from other countries on the European mainland. ==Modern brasses==