Bronze and brass ornamental work a smaller or greater amount of zinc. In early times this metal seems to have been sparingly employed, but from the Middle Ages onward the industry in brass was a very important one, carried out on a vast scale and applied in widely different directions. The term "latten", which is frequently met with in old documents, is rather loosely employed, and is sometimes used for objects made of bronze; its true application is to the alloy we call brass. In Europe its use for artistic purposes centered largely in the region of the Meuse valley in south-east Belgium, together with
Latten is not generally referred to as latten. This calamine brass was generally manufactured as hammered sheet or "battery brass" (hammered by a "battery" of water-powered trip hammers) and cast brass was rare. "Latten" also refers to a type of tin plating on iron (or possibly some other base metal), which is known as "white latten"; and "black latten" refers to "laten-brass", which is brass milled into thin plates or sheets. The term "latten" has also been used, rarely, to refer to lead alloys. In general, metal in thin sheets is said to be latten such as "gold latten"; and "lattens"