Ornamental female coping hood, 4th-5th century.
The Historical Museum of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Post-Mongolian times
The period following the Mongolian invasion was marked by an extensive research in decoration, which became even more refined and complex as form became more elegant. The silver wire inlay technique was often used. The artistic traditions of craftsmen of Central Asia in the 14th and 15th centuries have been revealed to us thanks to works that came from a treasure discovered near the Registan Ensemble in Samarkand, containing over 60 bronze objects for different purposes: cauldrons, vases, bowls, jugs, lids, and supports for containers, clearly displaying new tendencies emerging from the art of engraving in Central Asia at that stage of its development. The objects don’t all have the same artistic value. The most expressive ones are the small jugs entirely covered with inscriptions of benevolence and figurative subjects carried out with the damascening technique.
It is difficult to form an opinion about the development of the art of engraving in Central Asia throughout the 16th and 17th centuries although the sources mention the name Usto Kamal, goldsmith of Samarkand, famous for his decorative art on various metal objects.
The museum collections only possess weapon samples of that time. The shields, helmets, and sabres embellished with chiseled decoration and precious metal appliqués adorned with semiprecious stones of bright colours, were generally intended for high dignitaries and army commanders.
Many specimens of artistic engraving exist, dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The principal centres of metal object production were Bukhara, Kokand, Khiva, Samarkand, Karachi, Shahrisabz, and Tashkent. Although the objects were subject to a common artistic style, with dominating geometrical designs all over, they could be distinguished by numerous particularities.
The works made in Bukhara and Khiva were especially valued. One could recognise them by their gracious forms, well-proportioned classical harmony, stability of ornamental designs mainly made by using the deep engraving technique. The objects made in Samarkand resemble those from Bukhara, because of the way the copper is engraved. In the ornamentation of works from Karachi and Shahrisabz, inlays of turquoise, coral, bright coloured glass, and painted backgrounds were used. These objects have shallow engraving and small fragmented designs. The form of the vessels is complex and makes them seem heavy. Stone inlay and shallow engraving was also employed by the craftsmen from Kokand, principal centre of artistic metal work in the Ferghana Valley. The shapes of the objects, the ornamentation, and the decorative procedures are more developed there than in Karachi and Shahrisabz.
The contemporary period
At the end of the 19th through the early 20th century, reproductions of architectural monuments and supernatural monsters inspired by very popular lithographic works in those days, appeared in the engraved decoration of Ferghana and Bukhara. The objects of this period had different shapes and purposes.
The crockery of engraved copper was the same in each centre. It was composed of elegant jugs, washbowls, teapots with round, slightly flattened bodies, round and rectangular plates, vases and containers with handles for water, milk, and other drinks, candelabra, censers, perfume flasks, etc. The technical ornamentation procedures were almost identical everywhere. Essentially they consisted of carving, engraving, and hemstitched decoration. The vessels of big dimensions (buckets, cauldrons) sometimes had simple ornamentation. Very often, richly embellished metalware was used for decorative purposes in the houses of the well-to-do citizens.
The Goldsmith’s trade
The art of the goldsmith in Central Asia reflects many aspects of the material and spiritual life of its people, their way of life, their religious, social, ethical and artistic aspirations.