The Cleveland Museum of Art (spacer)
Special Exhibitions 		(spacer) (separator) (spacer) (spacer)
Jeweled Arts of India 		(spacer)
(spacer)
"Treasury of the World"

Highlights of The al-Sabah Collection

Explore The Jeweled Arts of India


Sword Hilt
Sword Hilt
LNS 297 M
Steel, overlaid with gold
Length of hilt with the bail folded 162 mm; width at quillions 81 mm; diameter of disc 59 mm
India, Deccan (perhaps Hyderabad), c. 2ns-3rd quarter 17th century AD
Photography by Bruce M. White

Gold-Embellished Steel

One of the most characteristic and best known of the Asian arts consists of arms and armor ornamented in gold, an art traditionally called "damascening." The term is derived from Damascus, the capital of Syria, among the great cities of ancient and medieval times. A companion but entirely different fashion-steel that has an internal pattern, or "watering," -derives its common name, "Damascus steel," from the same source. To avoid confusion, the techniques imprecisely called "damascening" are referred to in the exhibition as either "gold inlay" or "gold overlay," depending upon the actual method employed. For similar reasons, the indigenous term jauhar (meaning "integral [pattern]" as well as "jewel") is used for the type of steel called "Damascus."

Both these broad categories (gold overlay/inlay and jauhar) are featured in the objects in this section-steel blades, dagger and sword hilts, various fittings, a powder flask, and a gun rest-which display gold inlay and overlay decoration of great taste, finesse, and technical precision.

Page 7 of 13 | On the next page: Three-Dimensional Expressions