THE art of damascening comes to us, as we have remarked, evidently from Eastern nations; we are conversant with the luxury of these various countries, India, Persia, China, and Japan, and know how the anxious embellishment of the appliances of their sacred worship stimulated both their ardour and their zeal.

In China, from the year 1496 B.C., we see gold and silver employed to relieve the forms of bronze, and applied in delicate threads or plaques, that is to say both the processes used at a later period among the Mussulmans and the Italians. We have already said a word of the decorated bronzes devoted to sacred purposes in China under the Chang dynasty (1776 before the Christian era); and here we shall chiefly dwell upon the perfection of the incrustations with which they are adorned : the precious metals are diffused over their surfaces in lines of exceeding delicacy, or are displayed in well-marked veneers, and sometimes alternate with designs traced with a pencil in oxydes, which combine with the metal and are no less durable than the incrustations : in some examples, applications of malachite still further diversify the effects which are heightened by the skilful employment of patinas, some black as polished iron, others of a dark olive, others, again, of a vivid red, deep as the red oxyde of copper.

This work we find upon vases of various forms, almost invariably consecrated by inscriptions of an historical or honorary character, on figures of antique animals used as vessels for the altar, and even on elegant statuettes clothed in garments ornamented with borders and emblems.

In Japan, damascening was applied to iron both cast and forged, and to bronze, and contributed to works so exquisite that we are more inclined to class them with jewellery, than among the bronzes. In India it was the same; damascening and niellos were conjointly used in the embellishment of elegant cups, of betel-boxes, and a host of other productions which vie with the marvellous arms of the same country ; and the art of damascening was sustained so persistently that the late Universal Exhibitions presented us with caskets of many various forms of iron completely covered without and within with intricate vegetable designs in gold of inconceivable richness. This work was executed at Kosli in Bengal, where it is sold at a price of incredible cheapness.

There remains one more style of damascening peculiar to India, and of which the effect is in the highest degree artistic; we speak of incrustations of silver upon a black metal, dead, very brittle, which appears to be composed in great part of nickel : upon this absorbent ground, the artists lavished a perfect net-work of arabesques, ornate floral patterns, borders in the highest style of art: often the silver is even with the surface, and shows out solely by means of its dazzling whiteness : in other examples it stands out in relief, chased with unheard-of perfection; it occurs, sometimes, on this remarkable work, that the artist detaches small cells in which he has inserted cabochon rubies, which enhance the whiteness of the silver and make this sort of damascening to emulate the most lovely work of the goldsmith. We meet, too, with bottles, ewers, cups, every one of which appears to be referable to an epoch of the highest antiquity.

Nor is the Persian damascene work less rich than that of India : like the last, apart from arms, we meet with it applied to objects of iron of extreme elegance; but it is in those great salvers called vases de Chine, of which mention has been already made, that its most varied forms are found displayed, and on the flambeaux, torch-holders, and other utensils of a religious character, such as votive lamps; or upon drinking cups, mirrors, and other symbolical and cabalistic objects. We shall not recapitulate what we have already said of the character of these articles, and of the curious legends with which their surfaces are inscribed; these are usually covered with gold and silver. We must, however, be careful not to exclude from the category of damascened works many of those pieces in this style upon which we see no trace of the precious metals: at a certain epoch, barbarian speculators picked out the metals to throw them into the melting-pot; we find the trace of their application in a series of small raised tooth elevations in the copper or brass along the edges of the surfaces which must have been covered by the gold or silver. In the flambeaux, where certain inscriptions were six inches high, these traces are plainly visible.

We have, in a former place, named certain artists in bronze and damascene work, and notably the master, Mohammed, son of Eiz Zein, author of the cistern preserved in the collection of the Louvre, and Schogia, son of Hanfar, a native of Mosoul. We can, however, identify many others, prominent among whom is Zin-Eddin; but the signature most frequently met with, is that of the master, Mohammed el Kourdi, Mahomet the Kurd, who has set his name, either written in full or abbreviated, on a great number of productions nearly of the period of the Renaissance, all of which are charged with the armorial bearings of the great houses of Italy.

Indian Vase of black metal incruated with silver, (Collection of Antiquities of M. Sechan.).