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Copper embossing is regarded as one of the most ancient applied arts of Uzbekistan. It is almost as old as the art of ceramics, and has always been popular all over Central Asia. It supercedes other crafts in the number of articles as well as in variety of motifs.
The rules and techniques of the art were developed and perfected over a period of many centuries, and although mainly eighteenth century embossed work can be seen in the museums, the style of their design is close to the traditions of embossing of the previous centuries.
The main centers of manufacture of engraved articles were located in Bukhara, Khiva, Kokand, Samarkand, Karshi, Shahrisabz and Tashkent. Goods from the end of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are harmoniously proportioned, with plastic and expressive lines and ornamental patterns. From the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries the tastes of consumers were influenced by imported Russian goods, and the demand for these luxury articles increased. But the embossed and chased metal object sof that time were valued not only for their decorative qualities - they were displayed on open shelves built into the walls of reception rooms and played an important role in everyday life. They were indicators of social status and wealth.
The articles of the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries varied according to fashion as well as function. There were graceful and richly decorated jugs for water and tea. They had different names and distinctive silhouettes and forms, including various bowl-shaped vessels for water, milk, fruit juices and syrups, sweets and fruits. Trays, fruit-stands, beakers, tea kettles, buckets, vessels for transporting grain, water scoops, wash-basins, basins, storage-vessels for coins, caskets, smoking-sets, snuff-boxes, cases for writing articles such as pencil boxes and ink-pots, lamps, ritual articles, begging bowls, water pipes and hunting-drums formed part of the spectrum of household utensils of the period.
Copper-embossed articles were created by the masters of three professions: the copper-smiths beat their articles and also tinned; the founders cast vessels and accessory parts (knobs, covers, small cupolas, tips of spouts); and the chasers decorated them with engraving. The techniques were almost the same in all centers - embossing, engraving, and piercing masters used standard techniques, including processing by puncheon and net in order to attain a certain expressiveness of design.
The motifs of chased patterns are typical and can be met in ornaments of other types of Uzbek decorative applied art. The widespread islimi climbing-plant pattern has a multitude of versions. As a rule, medallions, rosettes, geometrical figures, various milling cutters and framed strips were designed according to this pattern. Geometrical ornamentation is mainly auxiliary in character. Zoomorphic motifs are seldom met except in a stylized manner, and in general only parts of animals are represented: chashmi bul'-bul' (nightingale's eye), kuchko-rak (ram's horns), or pushti balik (fish scales). There are volumetric plastic pictures of animals and birds depicting parts of their bodies on handles and spouts, which were created by founders. Great significance was assigned to astral themes, and also to calligraphic inscriptions. By the end of the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries in the embossing of Ferghana and then of Bukhara and Samarkand there appeared pictures of architectural monuments, and representations of fantastic creatures were introduced in the metalwork of Kokand.
Local schools of artistic embossing were established in Uzbekistan in the nineteenth century. These schools are distinguished by their ornamentation, form and function, as well as the utilization and application of certain technical means. The technique was the same though there was some difference in the intensity of embossing and the use of different techniques of decoration. The most profound embossing was called kandakury, the least profound, chizma. Besides engraving a kind of cut embossing, shabaka, was used.
The wares of Bukhara and Khiva chasers were famous and widely used in the nineteenth century. They were characterized by great plasticity of shapes, the classical balance of their proportions, the stability of their ornamental motifs and the technique of engraving by profound embossing. In the eighteenth century people from all over Central Asia came to Bukhara to learn the craft of metal chasing from the famous masters Shadi Mukhammad and Baratbay.
Though various types of items were manufactured. Bukhara embossing was remarkable for its simple and reserved shapes. The comparatively free background was shaded by hatching. In the eighteenth century the craftsmen of Bukhara took over the background coloring method from the chasers from Karshi, but unlike other schools they used this popular method rather moderately and with taste. The smooth wide outlines and bands, the so-called kundal method, lend a special expressiveness to the Bukhara patterns. The plastic and distinctive vegetable ornamentation of the Bukhara markings were much bigger but at the same time more graceful than patterns of other schools.
From the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries the Bukhara master-chasers used to decorate some parts of their work - body, neck, jug handles or wide trays - with calligraphic inscriptions, sometimes using vegetable motifs.
During that period a great variety of embossed items was produced in Bukhara. The most widely spread were water vessels - oftoba, yakhob; tea-pots - choydish, choynak; vases - guidon; water jugs and pails - satil; ritual vessels -kashkul, chil-kalid; bowl-cases - chinnikop; hunters' drums - dovul; and cosmetics vessels - sur-madon. The richly embossed pieces of armour produced at that time are represented in the museums of Uzbekistan: helmets, breastplates, knee pieces, shields, horse's metal armour, bridles, stirrups and swords.
In the nineteenth century the Karshi style of manufacture acquired a certain popularity in Bukhara. For instance, oftoba replaced the local ancient shapes. In its turn, in the beginning of the twentieth century, the Karshi oftoba was replaced by the Khiva variety.
Masters such as Salakhitdin, Mirza, Sharaf, Khakim Bukhari, Dostmukhammad Riza, Gulom worked in Bukhara in the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Bukhara craftsmen developed new shapes and products imitating imported factory-manufactured articles such as silver vases for fruit, sugar bowls and tea-pots. But the Bukhara craftsmen's devotion to the traditions and their art of improvisation ensured that impression created by the sometimes stylistically eclectic handicraft was positive, and among the best-known of these highly efficient metal chasers practicing in Bukhara from that period were the masters Alim Abdusalyamov, Qulyam Khasa-nov, Abloyar Yuljiev, Norsalikhov, and Kori Sharif.
The embossing school of Khorezm, often referred to as the Khiva school, has preserved its original and unique character as well as its variety of forms and ornamentation. In the nineteenth century the technique of deep embossing, and sometimes shallow embossing which is rather close to engraved carving, were popular among Khiva craftsmen. The peculiarity of the Khiva technique is a smooth background without decoration. Background coloring was not used there, but black and red lacquers were sometimes applied.
The favorite vegetable pattern of the Khiva masters has been an aylanma-islimi in the form of a sprout's tendrils with tightly spiralled five to six-petalled flowers. The turunj medallions, the intricately configured nets, and the saw cypress design pattern were frequently found in the Khiva products of the nineteenth to early twentieth century . Another specific feature of Khorezm ware was the shapes of the items themselves.
The selobcha wash basins are extraordinary. They are normally higher and deeper than those made elsewhere, and some have stands. The nosshisha copper snuff-boxes and water vessels, tung, tungcha, and kumgan are also specific to Khiva.
At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries many of the Khorezm chasers studied in Bukhara. This fact drew the two artistic schools and their styles closer, and the result was felt in the ornamentation of Khorezm embossing. At the beginning of this century a number of talented copper-smiths and chasers worked in Khiva, notably the founder of the well-known Matchanov dynasty of masters, Mukhammad Pano, a chaser, founder and engraver of the Khan's arms workshops. His son Khudaybergan was a chaser, musician, calligrapher, seal-carver, cannon founder and the best watchmaker in Khiva. The last representative of this dynasty was the famous musician Matpano.
In Kokand the copper embossed work of the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries was more varied in form but less perfect in proportion than the traditional products of Bukhara and Khiva. For instance, many tea-pots, or choy-dishes, manufactured by the Kokand craftsmen of the period had disproportionately wide necks and high stands.
Water-jugs were distinguished by their complicated forms. For instance, some examples of oftoba had the shape of a duck. Kokand candle-sticks also had interesting forms unlikely to be encountered in other local schools. The Kokand chasers preferred a relatively shallow but sharp chasing technique, and the Kokand and Margilan islimi vegetable pattern was very refined and extremely intricate in its small elements.
In the nineteenth century the Kokand chasers used all the known methods of background and surface pattern decorations: punching, hatching, various nets and figured hollows. The Kokand as well as the Bukhara craftsmen took over the printing technique from the Karshi masters. An essential role in the development of the Kokand school of metal chasing at the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth centuries was played by the Ataullaev family of chasers, consisting of six brothers. The head of the dynasty, Ataulla Mukhammad Radjabov, was a chaser and seal engraver employed in the palace armour decoration workshop. He became famous for his depictions of the Khudoy-arkhan palace on copper trays. Besides traditional objects, the Ataullaev brothers decorated new products with embossing: samovars, tea-pots, small basins and other mostly factory-made objects. The techniques and ornamentation of one of the brothers, Rakhamatulla Ataullaev, are noteworthy for their original character. Embossing is used moderately, two types of patterns alternating: vegetable ornamental bands and a graceful oval locket ending in a triangular madokhil. The works of another brother are richly decorated with fine patterns and applied rosettes, with turquoise eyes and a big colored stone in the center. The third Ataullaev family representative, usto Siddik, worked in a different style, incorporating depictions of fabulous creatures inspired by the illustrations from Turkish and Indian books into his ornamental compositions. The Kokand school of embossing belongs to a large group of Ferghana regional schools that had common traits in artistic style. In the Ferghana region at the turn of the century the craftsmen-chasers Ataulla Mukham Madrajab, mullah Kholik, Mussavir Kashgari, Farikh Kholikov and Mashrablived and worked .
The Samarkand embossing school managed to preserve the traditions of the last century more completely. As was the case with other schools it was influenced by folk artistic trends but nevertheless managed to preserve its original style. The preservation of the old traditions is connected with the names of the Samarkand craftsmen Tagay and Mukhamad.
In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the coppersmiths of Samarkand made jugs with a wide round body, slightly waisted; the originally formed choidishes, water vessels and vessel knobs that are not met in other regions of Uzbekistan; the original dulcha milk jugs with long thin spouts; sarkhumi water scoops; and copper cases for misgilof bowls.
The Samarkand school of the last century remained conservative and not as susceptible as other schools to the influence of new technical means and methods. Before the beginning of this century they used puncheon and net patterns for the background decoration distinct from that used by the craftsmen of other schools, and employed the technique of shabaka figured carving. The big plain vegetable pattern of the Samarkand craftsmen differed noticeably from the graceful and conventional patterns of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand. In the ornamental compositions of the Samarkand school we find the chorbarg four-petalled flower that characterized many other types of ancient Samarkand ornament. Outstanding cop-persmiths still working at the beginning of this century in Samarkand included Akhmad, Salim Misgar, Akhunjon and Khaidar Khoja.
The embossed pieces of the Karshi and Shakhrisabz craftsmen are very close to each other stylistically. At the same time the simple form and decorum of the Karshi and Shakhrisabz school of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries differs markedly from the embossing of the other Uzbekistan schools
The forms of the Karshi oftoba (jars for hand-washing with a wide body, long spout and plain wrought handle) are very original. These water vessels as well as the Karshi spittoons and wash-basins were made with concave sides with the lid in the form of a cotton flower that opened automatically when taken up.
The Karshi and Shakhrisabz schools differ also by design features unlike those of other regions. The elegant bases of the vessels' han-dle, spout and the top part of the body were decorated by large applied rosettes and lockets made by the stamping technique and encrusted with turquoise and glass. In Karshi and Shakhrisabz the chasers' craft was not considered as a separate profession. At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century the Karshi craftsmen Abdukodir and Saidi Sharafi Asad were the universally acknowledged masters, and the famous chasers Alim Sharafi and Jalol Sabir were working in Shakhrisabz.
The Tashkent school of coppersmiths developed in the middle of the nineteenth century. The large types of household utensils - various types of vessels for water and food (satil, choidish, kumgan) - belong to this period. At that time craftsmen from Kokand and Samarkand moved to Tashkent, and the Tashkent copper wares of this period bore the features of these schools and were not original. However, guest craftsmen had to follow the stable local artistic traditions and adapt them to consumers' taste. The big and simple pattern of nineteenth century Tashkent embossing was made by the kanda-kori method; the background was left plain or sometimes hatched.
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