He art of embossing sheet metal, or making raised designs on it, by beating it with certain tools and a hammer, is called Repousse. Exact imitations of such work can also be made by pressing the sheets into dies with stamps by machinery, but this is not repousse as regards work, not having been beaten by hand, although it is in relief.

This embossing is done in two ways: One by beating on the face, in which case the background is driven in with matts or stamps and a hammer, and the pattern remains in relief. The second method is to lay the face on a bed of tough and hard yet somewhat yielding ce-ment, made chiefly of pitch and brick-dust, and beat out or repousse (literally push or repulse) the pattern from behind.

The first method,on wood, which I was the first to teach in England and America, or to publish, as my works prove, is by far the easiest and least expensive, and most suitable for beginners, serving as an introduction to repousse on pitch, by which latter much bolder and more "artistic" work is produced, though it naturally requires more strength and skill.

Fig. 73. Panel in Flat Relief.