www.sairamtour.com Jeweler's art is one of the most ancient on the earth. Initially jewelry was used not merely as adornment; it also served a magical purpose as was believed to have magic properties able to protect the wearer from evil spirits.
The earliest adornments found in Uzbekistan date back to the 12th century B. C. In a burial ground located in the upper reaches of the Chirchik river there were excavated bronze bracelets with triangular inlaid patterns and ornaments in the form of cosmological spirals. Of great historical and cultural value are gold and silver religious objects, bracelets, finger-rings and necklaces from so-called Amu Darya treasure discovered in 1877 upstream the Amu Darya river. They vividly evidence the fact that as early as the 5th century B. C. the skill of Bactrian handicraftsmen achieved the perfection of a true art.
The archeological finds at the site of Dalverzintepe ancient settlement in the Surkhan-Darya area (Southern Uzbekistan) caused a real sensation: there was excavated a 32-kg treasure which consisted of highly artistic articles and gold, silver and gemstones jewellery dating back to the epoch of the Kushan Empire. Near the city of Termez on the site of Balalyk-tepe ancient settlement there were found the ruins of a palace decorated with 6th century wall-paintings featuring a scene of the feast. Noble women on these wall-paintings were pictured wearing gold rings and ear-rings with pendants reminding traditional personal adornments of modern Uzbek women.
In the Temurid period on the orders of court ladies local jewelers created sumptuous gold and silver ornamented objects.
The jeweler's art reached its golden age in the 19th – early 20th centuries. The adornments made by the jewelers of Bukhara, Khiva, Samarkand, Tashkent and Fergana valley were in great demand in the East and the West. The products of Bukhara and Tashkent masters were particularly appreciated. The jewellery of the Uzbek masters is distinguished for richness of forms, gracefulness of decoration and elaboration of details. In Uzbekistan silver was always the favorite material for making jewellery, but the Bukhara masters traditionally preferred gold. And that is not without reason: after all, Bukhara is located in the valley of the gold-bearing river Zarafshan where the precious metal has been mined since ancient times.
Creation of jewellery wonders takes place in a jeweler's workshop equipped with rather simple facilities. Here one can find a small homemade clay furnace in the form of a low prism with a cavity on its surface where charcoal is placed. Fire in the furnace is blown by means of manual bellows – dam made of sheepskin. The form of dam resembles two truncated cones connected in bases. For delicate work jewelers – zargars use a copper cone tube – dakhandam. They blow this tube directing a puff at a work piece. Silver and gold are smelted in crucible furnaces – buticha made of clay.
Masters use simple tools – tweezers of different calibers with grinded ends to manufacture chains, ear-rings and cells for stones; pincers to pick up fine details; scissors – kaychi; a set of nippers; little hammers, dies and moulds to make various jewellery components such as beads and halves of beads; a small iron anvil.
In the old days the jewelers who worked mainly with silver were called kumush-usto – silversmiths. Silver was not only used to make woman's personal adornments. It was widely used for decoration of horse harnesses, stirrups, ceremonial saddles, lashes – kamcha, weapon hilts and sheathes. Saddle-clothes were trimmed with silver plaques. Silver was used for making buttons for garments and belts. For instance, a traditional ceremonial man's suit had to be completed with a belt to match, and Bukhara masters decorated these belts with large ornamented buckles embellished with gemstones and niello. Sometimes round or figured lockets were attached along the full length of the belt. The most expensive man's belts were composed entirely of flexibly jointed bent filigree plates decorated with an openwork ornament.
According to a popular belief, silver deprives poisons of their force, keeps off evil spirits and preserves purity. Silversmiths distinguished two variations of silver – soft and hard. Slightly heated soft silver is forged into a foil, which is used to make overlays hammered into damascened steel or iron. Hard silver is smelted in a crucible furnace and cast in a metal mould – rezha in the form of a thin plate. Hammering the plate into a thin sheet and then drawing it through orifices of different calibers in a special metal plate – kirya, jewelers get silver wire for producing ear-rings and rings. To form the wire into a ring-shape the master wraps it round a special conic-shaped bender – ombur. The finest wire is used to weave chains and make up filigree patterns.
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