Gold & Silver Forum (http://goldismoney.info/forums/index.php)
- Gold - Silver - Coins - Numismatics (http://goldismoney.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=51)
- - damascene letter opener (http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=62736)

Anty Ep | 09-11-2006 06:17 PM
damascene letter opener Hot damn, I just found the damascene letter opener we got from Spain. I've been dulling my pocketknives with my mail for a year and it finally turned up under my desk. April 11, 1982 Quote:
<H1>DAMASCENE WARE IN SPAIN'S TOLEDO
Quote:
ROBERT PACKARD teaches humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology. BY ROBERT PACKARD T he shops of Toledo look to the visitor as if this Spanish city were promoting one commodity only: black steel objects etched with gold. This is damascene ware, the art of decorating steel with gold, silver and copper thread. Plates, boxes, ash trays, pendants, swords and bracelets - all damascened - seem to fill every display case and store window. Shopping in Toledo has a special dimension. Most visitors spend but a single day in the city, making the trip by car or bus from Madrid in less than two hours. And since Toledo's esthetic treasures - mosques, synagogues, churches and museums - comprise such a rich panoply of Roman, Visigothic, Moorish, Jewish and Christian art history in Spain and can be given only superficial attention in a day's time, shopping seems like a frivolous indulgence in the face of the cultural sacrifice it inevitably entails. But damascene is the ideal product to seduce the Toledo visitor. As a souvenir of a unique city, a damascened article is an almost predestined tourist purchase. Damascene is a serious form of decoration in a serious city. No one ever called either damascene or Toledo pretty. No one ever called them charming. Both are regal, arresting, and unconventional. While damascene objects can be put to practical use, their real function is display. A black steel plate with a design outlined in 24-karat gold thread is not something on which to serve arroz con pollo. And while Toledo itself has basic urban appurtenances, it remains a stage setting - a formal silhouette with an air that a tourist brochure disarmingly concedes is ''tinged with metallic lividity.'' An official publication issued by Spain's Ministry of Industry and Energy lists no fewer than 24 workshops in Toledo where artisans create authentic damascene ware. In 11 of these shops, artists work exclusively on damascene. But the extravagant number of stores carrying damascene products is such that the visitor should exercise caution before making purchases. The basic material is sometimes not steel but tin, and the decorative etching is often neither gold nor silver. Machine-made products are so expertly produced that even knowledgeable Toledeans admit the difficulty of recognizing them as such. Much junk is offered under the rubric ''damascene.'' The traveler can avoid such problems by going to a shop that carries damascene ware in which he can have confidence. Such a location is Artespana at No. 2 Samuel Levi Street. The shop is next to the house in which El Greco once lived, and two blocks from the Synagogue of Santa Maria la Blanca with its superb Moorish horseshoe arches and carved stone capitals. Artespana is one of 24 such shops throughout Spain carrying that name. Government-sponsored, they display and offer for sale handicrafts of the region. In Toledo, while some space is devoted to ceramics, armaments and lace embroidery, the emphasis is overwhelmingly on damascene ware. All the work on display has been executed by hand. The black steel is etched with 24-karat gold. The sales clerks will discuss the art of damascening and advise the visitor of the quality of a prospective purchase. The damascene process involves etching the design lightly with a stylus-like tool on the steel surface of the chosen object. Gold wire is laid within the rough edges raised by the chasing or etching. This burr is then worked down to hold the inlay, forming a delicate and intricate pattern against the contrasting black background. Among the handsomest damascene objects in the shop are the large plates and platters with designs of geometric density. Most of them use the circle as the dominant motif. Some are etched with arabesques. Others have Renaissance-like crests and insignia. Some have figures outlined on them - a religious grouping, horsemen, and inevitably, Don Quixote. When light is directed full upon these damascene objects, the brilliance of the gold radiates against the black steel. Prices range widely depending upon the size of the object and the amount of gold used in the etching. Ones that I admired cost well over $100 apiece. As the name suggests, damascene found its way to Toledo from Damascus. But the art has long been practised in Persia, China and Japan. Herodotus speaks of an ornamental dish that appears to have been damascened. When the Moors subjugated Toledo in the eighth century, they brought with them their own artisans and craftsmen. After the Christian reconquest in 1085, Toledo became the capital of Spain and a major center of Arab, Jewish, and Christian coexistence. For centuries the art of damascene in Toledo passed from generation to generation within the same family, and traditional designs changed little over the years. Recently the artisans have come from diverse backgrounds. The National Arms Corporation in Toledo trains young people in the art of damascening steel. Ten years' apprenticeship is required before one becomes a master craftsman. The Arabs used only silver for their damascene work, as their religion prohibited the secular use of decorative gold. Today in Toledo, artisans work almost exclusively with gold, occasionally interweaving some silver or copper, but they never work in silver alone. A puzzling aspect of damascene ware is that the Spanish themselves rarely purchase it for personal use. Foreigners constitute almost the entire buying public for damascene. ''You'll never find a Spanish woman wearing damascene jewelry,'' Antonio Barba, a longtime resident of Madrid and a collector of native handicrafts told a recent visitor, ''not even dead.'' Perhaps the most opulent of damascene objects made today are those commissioned by collectors of miniatures. Typically such works are black steel plates, 16 inches in diameter. Their borders are intricately etched with 20 grams of 24-karat gold. In the center, reduced to precise scale, is painted a copy of an El Greco or some other Old Master. Three artisans work on these creations: one does the forging, one the gold border and the third the painting. Such works take about three months to execute, sell for $4000 to $5000 and can be ordered through the Fabrica de Armas de Toledo, Vega Baja, Toledo, or through the Artespana shop. Where to buy it In Toledo In addition to the government-sponsored Artespana shop at 2 Samuel Levi, other stores in Toledo that carry small damascened articles at the kind of souvenir prices that will attract tourists include: Casa Montero, 18 Circo Romano. Arte Toledano, 10 Cristo de la Vega Hermanos Maldonado, 7 Plegadero. Francisco Hernandez, Bloque Ayuntamiento. In Madrid Major department stores in Madrid (Celso Garcia, Sepa, Galerias Preciados, Corte Ingles) have display counters of damascene ware. Typical Prices Inexpensive damascene articles on display at Corte Ingles included cufflinks at $6, earrings, bracelets and brooches from $5 to $25, large carved flat pendants on golden chains for $15; key rings, mortar and pestle sets, souvenir spoons and even some umbrella-like containers with miniature swords were all selling for under $25. R.P.
</H1><!--#articleBody-->

All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:13 PM. |

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2010, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright = None use it and Link to GIM