Plaster cast of a monument to Elisabeth of Brandenburg and Hermann VIII of Henneberg made by Jacob Rotermundt in 1873. The orginal was made by Peter Vishcher the Elder about 1510.

Plaster cast of monument to to Elisabeth of Brandenburg and Hermann VIII of Henneberg, based on a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, and considered a masterpiece of southern German Renaissance sculpture.

Copy of a monument ot Elisabeth of Brandenberg and Hermann VIII of Henneberg made in plaster by Jacob Rotermundt in Römhild, 1873, and purchased from Jacob Rotermundt & Son in 1873 for £30. The original was cast in bronze by Peter Vischer the Elder and the design was based on a drawing by Albrecht Dürer. The bronze was probably made in Römhild in about 1510 and is from the Church of Römhild, near Meiningen.

Making plaster copies is a centuries-old tradition that reached the height of its popularity during the 19th century. The V&A's casts are of large-scale architectural and sculptural works as well as small scale, jewelled book covers and ivory plaques, these last known as fictile ivories.

The Museum commissioned casts directly from makers and acquired others in exchange. Oronzio Lelli, of Florence was a key overseas supplier while, in London, Giovanni Franchi and Domenico Brucciani upheld a strong Italian tradition as highly-skilled mould-makers, or formatori.

Some casts are highly accurate depictions of original works, whilst others are more selective, replicating the outer surface of the original work, rather than its whole structure. Like a photograph, they record the moment the cast was taken: alterations, repairs and the wear and tear of age are all reproduced in the copies. The plasters can also be re-worked, so that their appearance differs slightly from the original from which they were taken.

To make a plaster cast, a negative mould has to be taken of the original object. The initial mould could be made from one of several ways. A flexible mould could be made by mixing wax with gutta-percha, a rubbery latex product taken from tropical trees. These two substances formed a mould that had a slightly elastic quality, so that it could easily be removed from the original object. Moulds were also made from gelatine, plaster or clay, and could then be used to create a plaster mould to use for casting.
When mixed with water, plaster can be poured into a prepared mould, allowed to set, and can be removed to produce a finished solid form. The moulds are coated with a separating or paring agent to prevent the newly poured plaster sticking to them. The smooth liquid state and slight expansion while setting allowed the quick drying plaster to infill even the most intricate contours of a mould.
Flatter, smaller objects in low relief usually require only one mould to cast the object. For more complex objects, with a raised surface, the mould would have to be made from a number of sections, known as piece-moulds. These pieces are held together in the so-called mother-mould, in order to create a mould of the whole object. Once the object has been cast from this mother-mould, the piece-moulds can be easily removed one by one, to create a cast of the three-dimensional object.

The bronze monument is considered a masterpiece of southern German Renaissance sculpture. It was made by the renowned German sculptor Peter Vischer the Elder and his workshop, and based on a drawing by the artist Albrecht Dürer. The cast was made in about 1873, the year in which the Architectural Courts (now the Cast Courts) were opened. The Museum purchased a number of casts from the German craftsman Jacob Rotermundt to show the achievements of German Renaissance sculpture.

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