Book cover, 16th century

Electrotype copies of metalwork, particularly goldsmith's work, formed an important part of the Museum's growing collection of reproductions, complementing the plaster casts and photographs of original works.

From the 1840s Birmingham-based Elkington & Co. dominated the English trade in electrotyping--an electrical equivalent of casting--and many of the Museum's electrotypes, were produced by Elkington in the 1870s and 1880s. The firm was particularly successful with large-scale electrotypes, which are technically very difficult to make. Electrotypes--also called Galvanoplastic copies, named for Luigi Galvini (Italian, 1737-1798), whose early experiments stimulated research on electricity--are closely related to electroplating.

A mould (initially of wax, but later of gutta percha) is taken from the object to be reproduced; copper is deposited on the mould in a plating vat; the mould is then removed, revealing a reproduction in copper of the original work. Ordinarily, the copper reproduction would be gilded or plated to imitate the material of the original.