Chats on Old Copper and Brass

by Fred. W. Burgess

Persian art is peculiarly specialistic in its treatment. The designs used by the metal-workers in that country from quite early days were emblematic and of an all-over conventional type, often interwoven with scenes. Even many of the common vessels, like bowls and covers and saucers of brass, are cleverly chased with hunting scenes and floral attributes, many of the cups being covered with arabesque ornament.

Some of the brass egg-shaped hooker bases are chased in relief; the mounts of the rose-water ewers—which are often of china, with metal linings for holding ice—are frequently decorative. In many instances the vessels are ornamented with coloured inlays, giving them peculiar colour effects. Damascus—always an important seat of metal-work—has supplied collectors from many countries with the beautifully incised ornament produced by filling in the cut spaces with fine gold or silver wire beaten into the brass and then polished. So important has this mode of giving relief become that damascened metal stands alone as an art, seen at its best in the wonderful armour of the later period, when the utility of plate armour was giving way to the ornament which embellished the State armour—the "dress suits" of the regimentals of the Stuart days.

How some Oriental Curios are Derived.

It is useful at times to consider how the curios we collect have gradually accumulated, and thus to ascertain how they have been secured in the past; and from that we are enabled to form some estimate of further supplies, for the law of supply and demand regulates to some extent the market value of curios; it has something to do with the direction taken by curio-hunters.

Many curios have come into this country as the result of war and loot. Wars in the Far East have served the collector, and many choice bits of metal-work have changed hands at nominal sums after the return of troops employed in minor wars and punitive expeditions. Our vast Indian Empire, however, supplies many beautiful objects in metal, both ancient and of comparatively recent days, but even those are so quaint and so unlike the common objects of British make with which we are familiar that they are welcomed and find a fitting place among antique copper and brass.

To understand the curios which may be bought in Eastern bazaars, and more conveniently in the numerous stores and shops where Indian curios are sold, it is well to become acquainted with a really good representative collection, such as that which may be examined in the Indian Museum at South Kensington. In several galleries, arranged in cases according to the districts from which the specimens have been gathered, are to be found metal-work ranging from the sixteenth century to the present day. Although some of these are exceptional pieces, by far the larger number are helpful to the collector of even modest means in that they represent Indian curios which may be collected at trifling cost. Such objects, however, are unfortunately too often intermixed with modern castings and copies offered unblushingly by the dealer to the unwary. Among such curios from Indian bazaars, purchased by travellers to the less frequented districts, are very many cooking utensils. Some of these, although not very old, are quaint and unlike modern European vessels, for the native cooks have been slow to accept any change in their methods of cooking and do not take kindly to the use of Western types of culinary appliances. The Indian cook clings tenaciously to copper vessels, and notwithstanding attempts to introduce vessels of tin, aluminium, and enamelled ware, the old "chattie" is again and again brought out in preference. Most of the vessels are of primitive types, but they serve the purpose and the material is good and lasting. The native workers understand the requirements of Indian men and women, and can shape and hammer together just what they have for generations regarded as "the best." Clever indeed have been the native braziers in the past—and they still are—for they possess in addition to knowledge of coppersmithing an excellent knowledge of the composition and working qualities of the materials they employ. They understand something of the chemistry of metals, and are careful when melting copper in the furnace or over the fire not to overheat it, or to allow the metal to perish in processes of manufacture.

A Wealth of Metal on View.

The collection of Asiatic metal-work where specimens from different countries, made at various periods, can be compared is, par excellence, that in the Indian Museum (the best examples of richly wrought damascened armour and arms are found in the Wallace Collection and at the Tower). The visitor on entering is at once absorbed in admiring Indian curiosities, especially the products of native craftsmen. In the vestibule are many remarkable exhibits, the work of Nepal metal-workers. Most of them were gifts to King George and Queen Mary when they visited India on the occasion of the great Coronation Durbar at Delhi. Some of the larger pieces were the gift of the Maharajah and Prime Minister of Nepal. Very wonderful is their workmanship, especially that of the brass groups so true to life. One of these represents a hunting elephant, fully equipped, with attendants; others, too, are associated with sports and hunting scenes. There are emblems of demons and the evil spirits which are so fully believed in by native dwellers on the borders of the forest.

Temple vessels are abundant, and among them are monsters and other fabulous creatures, and numbers of masks, notably those representing the fierce Dragpo fiend Tamdin (see [Chapter XIV]). There are some fine temple sets, and two magnificent conventional lions (temple guardians). There is also a very interesting brass group of natives occupied in various ways, one, for instance, carrying a package on his shoulder illustrating the method of relieving the weight of the bundle by a forehead strap, by which means natives are enabled to sustain the strain.