Inlay, koftgari, repousse, chasing and neillo

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Battara

Regarding kofgari:

GuyM - for some reason I was not catching on to what you were saying. 2 days ago it hit me and you are correct - Europe has been using in effect the same or similar technique, only they call it damascening. Basically the same process though - I have seen it on earlier 15th and 16th century Spanish earred daggers and even on Italian ornate hilts. I apologize for my brain not catching on sooner (tried a brain transplant once, and...well...um...couldn't find any donors ). Again, as I mentioned earlier, today I think it is only done in India.

I'm afraid I have to disagree about damascening being only done today in India...

There's a quite big damascening industry in Spain, with a tradition of centuries. Today, it centers around the Toledo Schools of damascening. Their work can be seen in all the gift shops that plague the country, with a wide range of qualities and applied to the most varied objects, though mainly focused on jewellery and decoration. Some examples, taken from a what could be a typical gift shop:



High-end Spanish damascening has been considered a prized collectible (link)for a long time, with the 19th c. seeing some of the most refined masters of the art, as were the Zuloaga family.



The main technique is essentially a variation of the koftgari process (link). It is supposed to have arrived to Spain with the Moorish invasions at the beginning of the 8th c.

I'm also sure this tradition is alive in other places, as well.