Quote:
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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.
