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Lost-wax casting

Illustration of stepwise bronze casting by the lost-wax method

Lost-wax casting – also called investment casting, precision casting, or cire perdue (French: [siʁ pɛʁdy]; borrowed from French)[1] – is the process by which a duplicate sculpture (often a metal, such as silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method.

The oldest known examples of this technique are approximately 6,500 years old (4550–4450 BC) and attributed to gold artefacts found at Bulgaria's Varna Necropolis.[2] A copper amulet from Mehrgarh, Indus Valley civilization, in Pakistan, is dated to circa 4,000 BC.[3] Cast copper objects, found in the Nahal Mishmar hoard in southern Israel, which belong to the Chalcolithic period (4500–3500 BC), are estimated, from carbon-14 dating, to date to circa 3500 BC.[4][5] Other examples from somewhat later periods are from Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC.[6] Lost-wax casting was widespread in Europe until the 18th century, when a piece-moulding process came to predominate.

The steps used in casting small bronze sculptures are fairly standardized, though the process today varies from foundry to foundry (in modern industrial use, the process is called investment casting). Variations of the process include: "lost mould", which recognizes that materials other than wax can be used (such as tallow, resin, tar, and textile);[7] and "waste wax process" (or "waste mould casting"), because the mould is destroyed to remove the cast item.[8][9]

  1. ^ "cire perdue". Oxford English Dictionary.
  2. ^ Leusch, Verena; Armbruster, Barbara; Pernicka, Ernst; Slavčev, Vladimir (1 February 2015). "On the Invention of Gold Metallurgy: The Gold Objects from the Varna I Cemetery (Bulgaria)—Technological Consequence and Inventive Creativity". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 25 (1): 353–376. doi:10.1017/S0959774314001140. ISSN 0959-7743. S2CID 163291835.
  3. ^ Thoury, M.; et al. (2016). "High spatial dynamics-photoluminescence imaging reveals the metallurgy of the earliest lost-wax cast object". Nature Communications. 7: 13356. Bibcode:2016NatCo...713356T. doi:10.1038/ncomms13356. PMC 5116070. PMID 27843139.
  4. ^ Moorey, P.R.S. "Early Metallurgy in Mesopotamia". In Maddin (1988).
  5. ^ Muhly, J.D. "The Beginnings of Metallurgy in the Old World". In Maddin (1988).
  6. ^ Jairazbhoy, Rafique A. (1982). The spread of ancient civilisations. Bognor Regis: New Horizon. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-86116-688-6.
  7. ^ Agrawal, D. P. (2000). Ancient Metal Technology and Archaeology of South Asia. A Pan-Asian Perspective. New Delhi: Aryan Books International. ISBN 978-81-7305-177-7.
  8. ^ McCreight, Tim (1991). The Complete Metalsmith: An Illustrated Handbook. Davis Publications. ISBN 978-0-87192-240-3.
  9. ^ Maryon, Herbert (1954). Metalwork and Enamelling, a Practical Treatise on Gold and Silversmiths' Work and Their Allied Crafts (3rd ed.). Chapman & Hall.

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