There seems much confusion about what is damascene and what is toledoware. It turns out that with regard to jewellery making at least, they are one and the same thing.
It is my understanding that damascene is the art of inlaying minute pieces of precious metal (karat gold, silver and platinum) into treated base metal, usually steel or iron.
It seems that the Spanish City of Toledo was the first area of major production in Europe (in the fifteenth century) hence the European name of ‘Toledoware’.
This particular type of inlay also referred to as Damascene is so named after Damascus the capital city of Syria. Damascus was known worldwide as a center of metalworking excellence in the Middle Ages but beautiful damascene items have been produced for centuries by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians too.
Earlier pieces of damascene tend to be more intricate and with many more and smaller inlays. Later, as the tourist market developed in Toledo, pieces became easier to mass produce with fewer and fewer intricate designs.
Here is a simplified guide as to how damascene or toledoware is produced:
1. First, the surface of the metal is scored often with slashes to show the surface pattern which will eventually be inlaid. This leaves the pattern visible for inlay and indents for reception of the metal inlay.
2. Patterns are drawn on the scored surface in gold and silver lines.
3. The item is then punched or struck with a powerful hammer (or maceta) to fully inlay the precious metal.
4. The black background is created by oxidation of the unmasked surfaces of the steel or iron in a hot ‘bluing’ solution.
5. A light and delicate finishing process by hand, ensures that the piece is ready for mounting.
6. Lastly, the plate which has had the inlay treatment is set into its backing plate, thus forming the finished piece of jewellery.
These confusing imposters often have the traditional black and gold look, but the gold is often painted on and more than likely the pieces inlaid are not gold or silver at all.
It has been said that much modern Damascene available today originates in the Far East and a huge amount of it is die cut, thus doing away totally with the ancient art of inlaying fine metals into base and satisfying the markets for this type of jewellery.
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I feel very sorry for anyone who is only just getting into collecting vintage costume jewellery, especially plastics, and who looks online to find genuine honest information. It really is a minefield of wrong information out there.
Whilst double checking facts (for the second time) about older natural plastics (amber, horn and tortoiseshell) I am stunned at the many websites who quote the same misinformation word for word.
I am told that this is because web site owners go out and copy any article they can find on their chosen subject and then add that text to their own site to somehow increase their web presence. In this way, what may have started out as a genuine mistake by someone, becomes magnified again and again.
Today I was double checking information from reference books about tortoiseshell. I should have stuck to the books, at least most of them are accurate.
Knowing full well that it is extremely difficult to tell horn from bone and either from tortoiseshell, fortunately I am lucky enough to know the basics.
One piece of mistaken information on an atomic scale was quoted my someone we shall call a 'little miss american'. She was expounding upon plastics, obviously to make her website bigger rather than from any urge to inform visitors of the truth.
She rambled on cutely about some vague early plastics and waffled on about John Hyatt and his invention of celluloid. Then comes the usual trite warning "This is a highly dangerous matieral - an exposive! So never ever stick it with a hot needel (sic)."
But then - she started to tackle Bakelite. I have to say I laughed out loud. Anyone who ever read a reference book or even an educational based website knows that bakelite was first used as an insulator as it does not conduct electricity or heat! Never! No exceptions!
The necklace shown above, the opaque brown and banana colour rounded oblong beads are made from one of the earliest European colours of bakelite. You could touch a probe with ten zillion volts onto one, and it would just sit there, looking offended. But it would NEVER melt, allow the needle to penetrate the material or smoke.
The absolute worst it could do is to leave a very light surface mark of a light purple. It would only be seen on something like clear or transparent cherry amber bakelite, like the necklace shown below.
Cables carrying huge amounts of lethel electricity were insulated with this material.
This oh so helpful little lady, (who obviously thinks she does indeed know about early plastics), then went on to advise people to stick a 'red hot needel (sic)' into a part which wont be seen (to test the item as being geniune bakelite).
"The only thing will happen is that the needel will leave a deep red or purple hole. The smoke will be black and smell yukky, like strong chemicals".
Yet someone else suggesting the dreaded 'hot pin test' which is probably the single biggest destroyer of many an antique item from celluloid to amber to tortoiseshell and back again.
Someone in the great www consortium should try their best to find a way to 'police' the web for facts which are just plain wrong!
It is different if someone is expressing their opinion, but when something is a basic fact and is either true or not true, then it is my firm belief there should be some kind of internet police.
