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Box and lid
unknown - Enlarge image
Box and lid
- Place of origin:
Cairo, Egypt (made)
- Date:
1500-1600 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Brass, turned, engraved and damascened, with a black lacquer infill
- Museum number:
44&A-1905
- Gallery location:
In store
The elaborate decoration on this brass box and lid tells us that it was made in Venice between 1500 and 1550. During this period the city was a flourishing centre for the production of brassware. The decoration was influenced by the objects brought to Venice by Venetian merchants who traded with the Turkish and Arab empires that bordered the Mediterranean. Venetian brasswork was almost always engraved and inlaid with silver wire with extensive scrolling decoration, as here, often covering the entire surface of an object.
The decorative technique employed on this brass bowl is known as damascening. Metalworkers used this process to inlay soft metal into a harder metal ground without using heat. They hammered and punched the inlay into grooves they had created in the metal body where it was held in place by a slight lip at the edge of the recess. The decoration was flush with the surface of the piece. The Venetian Muslim community produced many splendid damascened brass vessels, some of which are signed in Arabic by their makers.
