metalwork. Copper, gold, and silver were probably fashioned into ornaments and amulets as early as the Neolithic period. Goldwork goldwork, ornaments, jewelry, and vessels created from gold. Such works have figured in almost every stage of civilization as symbols of wealth and power.

The Ancient World

The earliest-known fine goldwork is from Ur in Mesopotamia. Dating from c.
..... Click the link for more information. and silverwork silverwork, utilitarian objects and works of art created from silver. Silverwork includes ecclesiastical and domestic plate, flatware, jewelry, buttons, buckles, boxes, toilet articles, weapons, furniture, and horse trappings.
..... Click the link for more information. have since employed the talents of leading artisans and artists in making jewelry jewelry, personal adornments worn for ornament or utility, to show rank or wealth, or to follow superstitious custom or fashion.

The most universal forms of jewelry are the necklace, bracelet, ring , pin , and earring .
..... Click the link for more information. , plate, inlays, and sculpture. The first great advance in metalworking occurred when techniques for making bronze sculpture bronze sculpture. Bronze is ideal for casting art works; it flows into all crevices of a mold, thus perfectly reproducing every detail of the most delicately modeled sculpture. It is malleable beneath the graver's tool and admirable for repoussé work.
..... Click the link for more information. were developed during the Bronze Age. Brass, an alloy of copper with zinc, came into use later (see brasses, monumental brasses, monumental, or sepulchral brasses, memorials to the dead, in use in churches on the Continent and in England in the 13th cent. and for several centuries following.
..... Click the link for more information. ; brasses, ornamental brasses, ornamental. Brass, a copper-zinc alloy produced since imperial Roman times, is closely associated in art with bronze, a copper-tin alloy (see bronze sculpture ). Brass was generally fashioned into utilitarian objects such as bowls, pots, and jugs.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The Iron Age provided a cheaper medium used chiefly for tools and ornamental ironwork ironwork, ornamental. The shaping of wrought iron , used almost exclusively until the 16th cent., is primarily an art of the blacksmith, who must work with the metal while it is at the desired stage of heat and flexibility.
..... Click the link for more information. until modern times, when improved methods, alloys, and machinery made iron available and essential to the industrial and structural trades. Pewter pewter, any of a number of ductile, silver-white alloys consisting principally of tin. The properties vary with the percentage of tin and the nature of the added materials.
..... Click the link for more information. , tin, and lead have been used in industrial and art metalwork. Methods of shaping metals include drawing, spinning, hammering, and casting; various decorative processes include chasing, damascening damascening (dăməsēn`ĭng) or damaskeening
..... Click the link for more information. , embossing embossing, process of producing upon various materials designs or patterns in relief by mechanical means. The material is pressed between a pair of dies especially adapted to its hardness and the depth of the design needed.
..... Click the link for more information. , enamel enamel, a siliceous substance fusible upon metal. It may be so compounded as to be transparent or opaque and with or without color, but it is usually employed to add decorative color. It was used to decorate jewelry in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
..... Click the link for more information. work, filigree filigree (fĭl`ĭgrē)
..... Click the link for more information. , gilding gilding, process of applying a thin layer of real or imitation gold to a surface. The process is employed on wood, metal, ivory, leather, paper, glass, porcelain, and fabrics and is used to embellish the decorative elements, domes, and vaults of buildings.
..... Click the link for more information. , inlaying inlaying, process of ornamenting a surface by setting into it material of different color or substance, usually in such a manner as to preserve a continuous plane.
..... Click the link for more information. , niello niello (nēĕl`ō) [Ital.
..... Click the link for more information. , and repoussé repoussé (rəp
..... Click the link for more information. .

metalwork

Useful and decorative objects fashioned of various metals. The oldest technique is hammering. After c. 2500 BC, casting was also used, molten metal being poured into a mold and allowed to cool. Various decorative techniques are used. Gold and silver have been worked since ancient times. Gold and silver objects were in such demand in the 12th century that gold- and silversmiths organized guilds. High-quality gold and silver objects were produced in pre-Columbian America. Copper was worked in ancient Egypt and was widely used for household utensils in 17th–18th-century Europe. Both bronze and brass were widely used in ancient Greece. Pewter plates and tankards were made in the Middle Ages and remained popular until they were superseded by cheaper earthenware and porcelain in the 18th century. Wrought iron has been used for decorative hinges, gates, and railings since the 16th century. Lead has traditionally been used for roof coverings.

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The Ancient World

metalwork

metalwork
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