Fonte Au Sable, Fonte À La Cire Perdue : Histoire D'une Rivalité

The 19th century went through a rivalry between two smelting processes of art bronzes: the sand casting, supposed to have been used before all in industrial production, and the lost wax casting, reputed to be more artistic but also more expensive.
In this book - historical, technical and based on extant works -, Elisabeth Lebon strays from usually-mentioned texts to go back to original sources in order to understand the elementary reasons of the choices and to try and clear up the paradoxes. She brings out the submission of sculpture and its actors to major ideological stakes.

From the same author: Dictionnaire des fondeurs de bronzes d'art, France 1890-1950