Historically, the term "latten" referred loosely to the copper alloys such as brass[1] or bronze[2] that appeared in the Middle Ages and through to the late-18th and early-19th centuries.
Such alloys were used for monumental brasses, in decorative effects on borders, rivets or other details of metalwork (particularly armour), in livery and pilgrim badges or funerary effigies.
[3] Latten commonly contained varying amounts of copper, tin, zinc and lead, giving it characteristics of both brass and bronze.
[4] Metalworkers commonly formed latten in thin sheets and used it to make church utensils.
[6] The term "latten" has also been used, rarely, to refer to lead alloys.