repoussé

[ruh-poo-sey]

adjective

1. (of a design) raised in relief by hammering on the reverse side.

2. ornamented or made in this kind of raised work.

noun

1. the art or process of producing repoussé designs.

repoussé

/ rəˈpuːseɪ /

adjective

1. raised in relief, as a design on a thin piece of metal hammered through from the underside

2. decorated with such designs

noun

1. a design or surface made in this way

2. the technique of hammering designs in this way

Word History and Origins

Origin of repoussé¹

1850–55; < French, past participle of repousser to push back; re-, push

Word History and Origins

Origin of repoussé¹

C19: from French, from repousser to push back, from _re- + pousser to _push

Example Sentences

Look for the rectangular punch bowl encrusted with repoussé roses, survivor of a 64-piece set made by Graham for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago — one of only three “Rose” pieces that the dealer Mark McHugh has seen in his 30 years in the business — and for an 1877 Tiffany ice bowl decorated with removable walruses.

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The city goldsmiths have long been celebrated as virtuosos of engraving, fretwork, niello inlay, Damascene inlay, repoussé and other highly specialized techniques.

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Among Mr. Vaggi’s antiques are honeycomb-cut gold pendants with diamonds, repoussé silver tureens and the micro-mosaics that were the original Grand Tour travel souvenirs.

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If celebrity men don’t make brooches’ resurgence clear enough, consider the surreally sized, seven-and-a-half-inch repoussé gilded brass Schiaparelli dove, bearing an olive branch, that Lady Gaga wore at the presidential inauguration in January.

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Shortly before his death in 1879, he consulted with his onetime student Fréderic-Auguste Bartholdi on the engineering of the Statue of Liberty, proposing the innovative metal armature and repoussé hammer-molding of paper-thin copper sheets that made the new colossus technically possible.

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