Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/24

 Lord Northbrook exhibited at Paris some fine Katch repousse work by Umersi Manji, a goldsmith of Katch Buj. In the city of Bombay there are 2,875 jewellers, of the different Indian nationalities of the Presidency, who find constant and lucrative employment.

Everywhere in Madras gold and silver, and indeed all the metals, are superbly wrought. Among the Prince of Wales’ presents is a shrine screen [Plate 8 his of old Madras pierced and hammered silver, which is a wonderful example of manipula- tive dexterity. Three other illustrations are given [Plates 9 bis, 10, and 11] from the Prince’s presents of Mysore gold dishes. Plate 9 his is a rare example in Indian work of properly applied ornamentation. The rim and cover of the tray are elaborately enriched with embossed flowers and leaves ; while the bottom is left plain, excepting the well proportioned border, and a centre panel of flowery geometrical design, which is enchased, so as not to interfere with its necessary flatness of surface. Plates 10 and 11, although purely Hindu in detail, seem to be Saracenic in general style, and in the subordination of the decoration both to form, and to the spacing of the general design. In the character- istic swcuni work of the Madras Presidency the ornamentation consists of figures of the Puranic gods in high relief, either beaten out from the surface, or affixed to it, whether by soldering, or wedging, or screwing them on. The Greeks called the art of working metal in relief ropevTLKrj, and the artists of such work in Rome went by the name of crustarii, from the crustce, or small ornaments in relief, with which they encrusted their work ; while the larger reliefs which they fastened on in such a way that they could be removed at pleasure, as can be done with the larger of these Madras swcuni figures, were called emble - mata. The large silver presentation shield in the India Museum, covered in this way with figures of the Puranic gods, is an amazing production of misapplied official energy. The emblemata are