Page:The Industrial Arts of India.djvu/81

 There is another matchlock [Plate 41], the stock of which is carved in ivory, against a chocolate-stained background, with scenes of wild animal life, in which every group is a perfect cameo. The richer arms are resplendent with gold and enamel- ling, and gems, and are generally of uncontaminated Indian design. There is, indeed, but little room for the obtrusion of European design in Oriental arms.

There are, however, several swords and daggers in the Prince’s magnificent collection of arms, which. have been mounted in native design by English workmen, and the result is not less mischievous than when European designs are literally imitated by unsophis- ticated native handicraftsmen. The mechanical character of European manufactures requires a consistent general finish which is quite out of place in the bold and freehand compositions of the best native art work, in which finish is strictly subordinated to practical use and artistic effect ; and, if a taste for mechanical per- fection becomes prevalent with the spread of middle class English ideas among the princes and chiefs of India, Indian wrought arms and jewelry will soon become arts of the past. The splendour of Indian arms and jewelry is due to the lavish use of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other bright and colored stones. But, as their work is really manual, and grows up spontaneously, like a growing flower, under their hands, the native jewellers are able to use the most worthless gems on it, mere chips and scales of diamonds, often so thin that they will float on water, and flaived rubies and emeralds, which have no value as precious stones, but only as barbaric blobs of colour. The European jeweller can use with his machine made work only the most costly gems, polished to the highest lustre, far too costly to be used except for their own effect and intrinsic value only, and it would be impos- sible to employ them merely to enhance the general decorative effect, as in India. There are examples in the Prince’s collection of elaborate gold work in purely native design, but by English workmen ; and the mechanical precision of their work has forced