The Journal of Indian Art and Industry Indian Jewellery Part IV

The rude and uncultivated character of the J hats and the artHt.c and mechanical dexterity of the Kashmiras and the peculiarities of other Hill Tribes have had some influence on the industrial arts. [...] It was an enchantment of which the perfection of the workmanship disputed the brilliance of the metal and the glitter of the colours lent an enchanment which vanished and left behind it only naked walls and empty frames which we can pnly evoke by an effort of the imagination." In his " L'Art Persan" the same author refers to the great skill of flit Persian seal engravers derived he think [...] In studying our subject in the Panjab it is perhaps as convenient as in any part of the present work to consider the question of the trade in jewellery in India and the extent to which the people are employed in manufacturing or distributing it. [...] Charles refers to the antiquity of the goldsmith's art to the persistence of form and the religious character of many ornaments to the necessity of their use as a mark of respectability even amongst the poorest classes and to the large " amount of unproductive capital locked up in this way." He notes that Delhi is a centre from which many towns and villages in the United Provinces obtain their [...] Therein the jurors observe that Delhi was and perhaps is still the principal place in India for the manufacture of all kinds of jewellery though since the extinction of the King and Court after the Mutiny the trade is not what it was and the best artizans are emigrating to the Native States.