Niello-work and Damascening.
Niello-work has been mentioned on a previous page. It was an important branch of the goldsmith’s art, as well as that of damascening. From the earliest times the nations of antiquity have engraved on metals and filled up the lines or grooves of the engraving with a black species of enamel composition—niello—or with other metals such as silver, gold, and electrum; the latter process has been called damascening, from Damascus, where gold and silver inlaid in iron or steel was practised in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
It was a favourite method of decorating metals during the Middle Ages throughout the countries of Persia, Syria, and in most European countries, especially on such objects as arms, armour, and different kinds of vessels.
Fig. 191.—Italian Damascene Work; Sixteenth Century.
The celebrated Italian metal-worker, Maso Finiguerra, worked extensively in niello, and to him is ascribed the discovery of the art of engraving on copper and printing from the copper plate. He was a goldsmith and a native of Florence, and was the pupil of Ghiberti and Masaccio. In the year 1452 he made a pax, on the flat panel of which he engraved a design to be filled in afterwards with the black composition of niello, but before he had completely finished his work he took a “squeeze” in clay of the engraving in order to judge of the progress he had made, and from this squeeze he made a mould in sulphur, and filled it with a black pigment, and on pressing this sulphur block on a sheet of damp paper the pattern appeared similar to the niello effect. This led him to fill the lines of the actual silver plate with a more durable ink, and to print off impressions on paper. It was by thus experimenting that Finiguerra discovered the art of engraving and printing from the metal plate. The original pax with its impressions are preserved at Florence.
Damascening is executed in three ways. First, where the steel or copper is engraved with an undercut line and a thread of gold or silver is forced in by hammering or pressed by a burnisher into the grooved lines. Second, the plated method, where the plate of metal to be encrusted is enclosed between slightly raised walls in the foundation metal. Third, where the foundation metal is roughened by a sharp tool in all directions and the gold or silver is laid on thinly and pressed or hammered in. The last method is the latest and least durable. Sometimes the lines of the engraving are punched with holes at regulated distances, which serve as keys to hold the inlaid metal when hammered in.
Fig. 192.—Shield Damascened in Gold; Indian. (B.)
The famous bowl called the “Baptistery of St. Louis,” now in the Louvre, is made of copper inlaid with figures of horsemen and hunting scenes. It is an example of “Mosil work,” or Mesopotamian damascening, of the thirteenth century, in which silver only is used as the inlaid metal.
A delicate design in Italian damascene work is shown at Fig. 191, and an Indian example at Fig. 192. The Italian example shows the Arabian influence in some of the details of the ornament. The Japanese are perfect masters in the art of damascening. Sword-blades of the thirteenth and later centuries have beautiful designs inlaid as intaglios or in damascene work; sword-guards of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are remarkable for this kind of decoration, and for the exquisite chasing of the iron, which in some cases is cut out like fret-work, and in others are carved as delicate as decorative ivory work.
Indian Jewellery.
The jewellery of India is one of the most important art industries of that country, and the trade of the gold and silver smith is an established institution in every village and district. The variation in style and method of fabrication has very marked features, according to the fashion that finds favour in each locality. The extreme love for trinkets of a brilliant and dazzling nature amongst all grades of the people has in a great measure directed the fabrication of Indian jewellery, which tends to make the most of the precious metals by using them in thin plates or in a filigrain work, and in order to get the flashing effect and rich colouring, scales or flakes of diamonds are more often used than the more valuable and solid gems, and inferior gems, or even coloured glass, are set to the best advantage, and used indiscriminately: anything, in fact, is used in order to get the gorgeous variety of brilliant colouring and dazzling effect. Much of the Indian jewellery is of a flimsy character as regards its lightness and thin nature of the material; but the latter is generally of the best quality, and the artistic workmanship lavished on most of the jewellery more than makes up for its want of inherent solidity.
Fig. Fig. 193.-Primitive Silver Bracelet: Dinajpur, Bengal. (B.)
Jewellery ought to be light in character and of good design and workmanship if it is intended to fulfil its use in decorating the person, as nothing is uglier than heavy jewellery, which can only be valuable in the light of representing the wealth of the owner.
Some of the Indian jewellery is, however, fairly solid and heavy, as in the chopped gold form of cubical, octahedron, and oblong shapes of the metal which are strung on silk cord as necklaces, and the nail-head variety of earrings made at Ahmedabad and Surat in Western India.
Fig. 194.—Silver Neck Ornament, from Sindh. (B.)
Girdles, torques or neck collars, bracelets, and anklets are made of twisted gold wire, which are common throughout India, and in the western provinces are made in the twisted form of the Matheran knotted and woven grass collars.
Fig. 195.—Native Silver Jewellery of Cuttack. (B.)
Fig. 196.—Filigrain Jewellery of Cuttack. (B.)
Some of the native jewellery in many parts of India still keeps its primitive character and bears a great likeness to the very early Celtic jewellery found in Ireland and in other countries of Europe, which would probably suggest the same Celtic origin for all (Fig. 193).
Fig. 197.—Native Jewellery of Trichinopoly, Madras. (B.)
The silver filigrain work of India, especially the designs of the Sindh jewellery and that made at Cuttack, Trichinopoly, and Travancore, recalls the methods of fabrication and design of the ancient Etruscan jewellery. (See Figs. 194, 195, 197.)
A certain analogy may also be noticed in the native jewellery from the above places to the Phœnician, primitive Grecian, and even Scandinavian, which goes a long way to prove the intercourse between, and the migrations of, the people of India, Thibet, Turkestan to Asia Minor and the continent of Europe.
Some Indian jewellery, though possessing shapes common to other countries, has very distinctive national characteristics in the decoration, which may be seen in the illustration (Fig. 198) of the gold plate from Bombay. In these cases the design is usually symbolical.
Fig. 198.—Native Gold Jewellery of Bombay. (B.)
The Indian jewellers of the Mogul period have produced some exquisite work in the setting of gems on jade carvings and on small vases of jade.
The deftness and cunning of the Indian jeweller may have been equalled by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks, but he has not been surpassed in his delicate workmanship by any nation of modern times.