Niello is a black mixture, usually of
sulphur,
copper
Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...
,
silver
Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
, and
lead
Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...
, used as an
inlay
Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with the ...
on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. It is added as a powder or paste, then fired until it melts or at least softens, and flows or is pushed into engraved lines in the metal. It hardens and blackens when cool, and the niello on the flat surface is polished off to show the filled lines in black, contrasting with the polished metal around it. It may also be used with other
metalworking
Metalworking is the process of shaping and reshaping metals in order to create useful objects, parts, assemblies, and large scale structures. As a term, it covers a wide and diverse range of processes, skills, and tools for producing objects on e ...
techniques to cover larger areas, as seen in the sky in the
diptych illustrated here. The metal where niello is to be placed is often roughened to provide a . In many cases, especially in objects that have been buried underground, where the niello is now lost, the roughened surface indicates that it was once there.
Niello was used on a variety of objects including sword hilts, chalices, plates, horns, adornment for horses, jewellery such as bracelets, rings, pendants, and small fittings such as strap-ends, purse-bars, buttons, belt buckles and the like. It was also used to fill in the letters in inscriptions engraved on metal. Periods when engraving filled in with niello has been used to make full images with figures have been relatively few, but the practice has produced some significant achievements. In ornament, niello came to have competition from
enamel, with far wider colour possibilities, which eventually displaced it in most of Europe.
The name derives from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
for the substance,
[Levinson, 528] or from or , the
medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...
word for "black". Though historically most common in Europe, niello has also been produced in many parts of Asia and the
Near East
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
.
[Osborne, 595]
History
Bronze Age
There are a number of claimed uses of niello from the Mediterranean
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
, all of which have been the subjects of disputes as to the actual composition of the materials used, that have not been conclusively settled, despite some decades of debate. The earliest claimed use of niello appears in late Bronze Age
Byblos
Byblos ( ; ), also known as Jebeil, Jbeil or Jubayl (, Lebanese Arabic, locally ), is an ancient city in the Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate of Lebanon. The area is believed to have been first settled between 8800 and 7000BC and continuously inhabited ...
in Syria, around 1800 BC, in inscriptions in
hieroglyphs on
scimitars. In
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...
it appears a little later, in the tomb of Queen
Ahhotep II, who lived about 1550 BC, on a dagger decorated with a lion chasing a calf in a rocky landscape in a style that shows Greek influence, or at least similarity to the roughly contemporary daggers from
Mycenae
Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...
, and perhaps other objects in the tomb.
At about the same time of c.1550 BC it appears on several
bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
daggers from
shaft grave royal tombs at
Mycenae
Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...
(in
Grave Circle A and
Grave Circle B), especially in long thin scenes running along the centre of the blade. These show the violence typical of the art of
Mycenaean Greece
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainla ...
, as well as a sophistication in both technique and figurative imagery that is startlingly original in a Greek context. There are a number of scenes of lions hunting and being hunted, attacking men and being attacked; most are now in the
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
The National Archaeological Museum () in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world and ...
.
These are in a mixed-media technique often called ''metalmalerei'' (German: "painting in metal"), which involves using gold and silver inlays or applied foils with black niello and the bronze, which would originally have been brightly polished. As well as providing a black colour, the niello was also used as the adhesive to hold the thin gold and silver foils in place.
Byblos in Syria, where niello first appears, was something of an Egyptian outpost on the
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
, and many scholars think that it was highly-skilled metalworkers from Syria who introduced the technique to both Egypt and Mycenaean Greece. The
iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
can most easily be explained by some combination of influence from the broader traditions of
Mesopotamian art where somewhat comparable imagery had been produced for over a thousand years in
cylinder seals and the like, and some (such as the physique of the figures) from
Minoan art, although no early niello has been found on
Crete
Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...
.
A decorated metal cup, the "
Enkomi Cup" from
Cyprus
Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
has also been claimed to use niello decoration. However, controversy has continued since the 1960s as to whether the material used on all these pieces actually is niello, and a succession of increasingly sophisticated scientific tests have failed to provide evidence of the presence of the sulphurous compounds which define niello. It has been suggested that these artefacts, or at least the daggers, use in fact a technique of patinated metal that may be the same as the
Corinthian bronze known from ancient literature, and is similar to the Japanese
Shakudō.
Persia
The
Sassanid Persians enjoyed dining and drinking together, a social event that is visible through ceramic, glass, and silver vessels. Elite circles handled silver cups, plates, and bowls on which artisans hammered and chased intricate designs.
Sasanian niello is a decorative technique used in metalworking during the Sasanian Empire (224-651 AD). This technique was particularly popular in Sasanian silverwork, adorning objects such as plates, bowls, ewers, and jewelry. The designs often featured scenes of hunting, courtly life, animals, and mythical creatures.
Sasanian niello is notable for its fine craftsmanship and the skillful use of negative space to create detailed imagery. But in general, Niello was rarely used in
Sasanian metalwork, which could use it inventively. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
has Sasanian shallow bowls or dishes where in one case it forms the stripes on a tiger, and in another the horns and hoofs of goats in relief, as well as parts of the king's weapons. This relief use of niello seems to be paralleled from this period in only one piece of Byzantine silver.
A silver oval bowl decorated with tigers and grapevines, attributed to the Sasanian period of Iran (3rd-7th centuries CE) and held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, was examined using non-invasive analytical techniques to identify the composition of the
silver alloy and the niello inlay used in its decoration. The study revealed that the bowl is made of a silver-copper alloy containing approximately 3 wt.% copper. The niello inlays were found to consist solely of silver sulfide (
acanthite). This composition closely resembles that of early Roman niello inlays, suggesting a possible technological link between Roman and Sasanian metalworkers during this period.
Roman, Byzantine and medieval
Niello is then hardly found until the Roman period; or perhaps it first appears around this point.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
(AD 23–79) describes the technique as Egyptian, and remarks the oddness of decorating silver in this way. Some of the earliest uses, from 1–300 AD, seem to be small statuettes and
brooches of big cats, where niello is used for the stripes of
tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
s and the spots on
panthers; these were very common in Roman art, as creatures of
Bacchus. The animal repertoire of
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of ''Britannia'' after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caes ...
was somewhat different, and provides brooches with niello stripes on a
hare and a cat. From about the 4th century, it was used for ornamental details such as borders and for inscriptions in late Roman silver, such as a dish and bowl in the
Mildenhall Treasure and pieces in the
Hoxne Hoard, including Christian church plate. It was often used on spoons, which were often inscribed with the owner's name, or later crosses. This type of use continued in Byzantine metalwork, from where it passed to Russia.
It is very common in
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
metalwork, with examples including the
Tassilo Chalice,
Strickland Brooch
The Strickland Brooch is an Anglo-Saxon art, Anglo-Saxon silver and niello disc brooch dated to the mid 9th century, now in the British Museum. Although its exact provenance is unknown, it is regarded by scholars as a rare and important example o ...
, and the
Fuller Brooch,
generally forming the background for motifs carried in the metal, but also used for rather crude geometric decoration of spots, triangles and stripes on small relatively everyday fittings such as strap-ends in base metal. There is similar use in
Celtic, Viking, and other types of Early Medieval jewellery and metalwork, especially in northern Europe. Similar uses continued in the traditional styles of jewellery of the Middle East until at least the 20th century. The Late Roman buckle from Gaul illustrated here shows a relatively high quality early example of this sort of decoration.

In
Romanesque art
Romanesque art is the art of Europe from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic Art, Gothic style in the 12th century, or later depending on region. The preceding period is known as the Pre-Romanesque period. The term was invented by 1 ...
colourful
champlevé enamel largely replaced it, although it continued to be used for small highlights of ornament, and some high quality
Mosan art began to use it for small figurative images as part of large pieces, very often applied as plaques. These began to exploit the possibilities of niello for carrying a precise graphic style. The back of the
Ottonian Imperial Cross (1020s) has outline engravings of figures filled with niello, the black lines forming the figures on a gold background. Later Romanesque pieces began to use a more densely engraved style, where the figures are mostly carried by the polished metal, against a black background. Romanesque champlevé enamel was applied to a cheap copper or copper alloy form, which was a great advantage, but for some pieces the prestige of precious metal was desired, and a small number of nielloed silver pieces from c. 1175–1200 adopt the ornamental vocabulary developed in
Limoges enamel.
A group of high-quality pieces apparently originating in the
Rhineland
The Rhineland ( ; ; ; ) is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly Middle Rhine, its middle section. It is the main industrial heartland of Germany because of its many factories, and it has historic ties to the Holy ...
, which use both niello and enamel, include what may be the earliest
reliquary
A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''.
Relics may be the purported ...
with scenes of the murder and burial of
Thomas Becket, probably from a few years after his death in 1170 (
The Cloisters). Eight large nielloed plaques decorate the sides and roof, six with figures seen close-up at less than half-length, in a very different style from the cruder full-length figures in the many Limoges enamel equivalent reliquaries.
Gothic art from the 13th century continued to develop this pictorial use of niello, which reached its high point in the Renaissance.
Niello continued to be widely used for simple ornament on small pieces, though at the top end goldsmiths were more likely to use black enamel to fill inscriptions on rings and the like. Niello was also used on
plate armour
Plate armour is a historical type of personal body armour made from bronze, iron, or steel plates, culminating in the iconic suit of armour entirely encasing the wearer. Full plate steel armour developed in Europe during the Late Middle Ages, es ...
, in this case over
etched steel, as well as weapons.
File:Brooch in the Form of a Panther MET sf47-100-18s3.jpg, Roman brooch in the form of a panther, copper alloy inlaid with silver and niello, 100-300
File:Spoon with a Panther MET sf17-192-254s1.jpg, Silver-plated fancy bronze spoon with a panther, Roman, 3rd-4th century, found in France
File:Mount for Spear Shaft MET DP30251.jpg, Mount for Spear Shaft, Late Roman, c. 400
File:Byzantine - Marriage Ring with Scenes from the Life of Christ - Walters 4515 - Right.jpg, Gold Byzantine wedding ring with scenes from the Life of Christ, 6th century
File:Liturgical colander MNMA Cl23248.jpg, Niello ornamentation and inscription on a silver 6th-century liturgical strainer, France
File:Plate with Monogram MET sf52-25-2d2.jpg, Monogram in the centre of an otherwise plain Byzantine dish, 610-613
File:Brit Mus Fuller Brooch.jpg, The Fuller Brooch, Anglo-Saxon, 9th century
File:Early medieval silver strap end (FindID 538973).jpg, Anglo-Saxon silver strap end in the Trewhiddle style, now only with traces of niello left. 9th century
File:Weltliche Schatzkammer Wien (185).JPG, Niello-filled lettering on the side of the Imperial Cross, c. 1024-25
File:Niello-filled paten from Trzemeszno, Poland, fourth quarter of the 12th century.png, Niello-filled paten from Trzemeszno, Poland, fourth quarter of the 12th century
Renaissance niello
Some Renaissance goldsmiths in Europe, such as
Maso Finiguerra and
Antonio del Pollaiuolo in Florence, decorated their works, usually in silver, by
engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...
the metal with a
burin, after which they filled up the hollows produced by the burin with a black enamel-like compound made of silver, lead and sulphur. The resulting design, called a niello, was of much higher contrast and thus much more visible. Sometimes niello decoration was incidental to the objects, but some pieces such as
paxes were effectively pictures in niello. A range of religious objects such as
crucifixes and
reliquaries might be decorated in this way, as well as secular objects such as knife handles, rings and other jewellery, and fittings such as buckles. It appears that niello-work was probably a specialist activity of some goldsmiths, not practiced by others, and most work came from Florence or
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
.
Niellists were important in the history of art because they had developed skills and techniques that transferred easily to engraving plates for
printmaking
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proces ...
on paper, and nearly all the earliest engravers were trained as goldsmiths, enabling the new art medium to develop very quickly. At least in Italy, some of the very earliest engraved prints were in fact made by treating a silver object intended for niello as a printing plate with ink, before the niello was added. These are known as "niello prints", or in the cautious words of modern curators, "printed from a plate engraved in the niello manner"; in later centuries, after a collector's market grew up, many were forgeries. The genuine Renaissance prints were probably made mainly as a record of his work by the goldsmith, and perhaps as independent art objects.
By the late 16th century relatively little use was made of niello, especially to create pictures, and a different type of mastic that could be used in much the same way for contrasts in decoration was devised, so European pictorial use was largely restricted to Russia, except for some watches, guns, instruments and the like.
Niello has continued to be used sometimes by Western jewellers.
File:Maso finiguerra, crocifissione, 1460-64 ca. (bargello).JPG, Florentine pax, early 1460s, probably by Maso Finiguerra
File:Pax Amerbach Cabinet HMB 1878-42 c7586 (cropped).jpg, German pax, c. 1490, circle of the engraver Martin Schongauer, showing a close relationship to the printed engraving style.
File:Orpheus seated and playing his lyre, charming the animals MET DP860466.jpg, Niello print, 2 inches high, 1500-1520. Orpheus seated and playing his lyre, by Peregrino da Cesena
File:Watch MET DP-12675-003.jpg, Watch case, London around 1700
Kievan Rus and Russia
During the 10th to 13th century AD,
Kievan Rus craftsmen possessed a high degree of
skill in jewellery making.
John Tsetses, a 12th-century Byzantine writer, praised the work of Kievan Rus artisans and likened their work to the creations of
Daedalus
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (, ; Greek language, Greek: Δαίδαλος; Latin language, Latin: ''Daedalus''; Etruscan language, Etruscan: ''Taitale'') was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power. H ...
, the highly skilled craftsman of
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
.
The Kievan Rus technique for niello application was first shaping silver or gold by
repoussé work, embossing, and casting. They would raise objects in
high relief and fill the background with niello using a mixture of red copper, lead, silver, potash, borax, sulphur which was liquefied and poured into concave surfaces before being fired in a furnace. The heat of the furnace would blacken the niello and make the other ornamentation stand out more vividly.
Nielloed items were mass-produced using moulds that still survive today and were traded with
Greeks
Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Greek Cypriots, Cyprus, Greeks in Albania, southern Albania, Greeks in Turkey#History, Anatolia, parts of Greeks in Italy, Italy and Egyptian Greeks, Egypt, and to a l ...
, the
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...
, and other peoples that traded along the
trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks.
During the
Mongol invasion from 1237 to 1240 AD, nearly all of Kievan Rus was overrun. Settlements and workshops were burned and razed and most of the craftsmen and artisans were killed. Afterwards, skill in niello and cloisonné enamel diminished greatly. The Ukrainian Museum of Historic Treasures, located in
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
, has a large collection of nielloed items mostly recovered from tombs found throughout
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
.
Later,
Veliky Ustyug in North Russia,
Tula and Moscow produced high quality pictorial niello pieces such as
snuff boxes in contemporary styles such as
Rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
and
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; by then Russia was virtually the only part of Europe regularly using niello in fashionable styles.
File:Sacrament box MET SF2002 617 3 img1.jpg, Russian sacrament box; early 18th century
File:Table snuffbox MET ES5506.jpg, Rococo
Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...
table snuff-box with shell body. Probably Veliky Ustyug, c. 1745–50
File:Snuffbox MET SF1992 174.jpg, Snuffbox with distance-finder, Veliky Ustyug, 1823
File:Tumbler MET ES3191.jpg, Russian tumbler, 1854
Islamic world
In the early Islamic world silver, though continuing in use for vessels at the courts of princes, was much less widely used by the merely wealthy. Instead, vessels of the copper alloys bronze and
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...
included inlays of silver and gold in their often elaborate decoration, leaving less of a place for niello. Other black fillings were also used, and museum descriptions are often vague about the actual substances involved.
The famous "
Baptistère de Saint Louis", c. 1300, a
Mamluk basin of engraved brass with gold, silver and niello inlay, which has been in France since at least 1440 (
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.
...
and perhaps other kings were baptized in it; now
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
), is one example where niello is used. Here niello is the background to the figures and the
arabesque ornament around them, and used to fill the lines in both.
It is used on the locking bars of some ivory boxes and caskets, and perhaps continued more widely in use on weapons, where it is certainly found in later centuries from which more material survives. It is common in the decoration of the
scabbards and hilts of the large daggers called
khanjali and
qama traditionally carried by all males in the
Caucasus
The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...
region (whether Muslim or Christian). It was also used to decorate handguns when they came into use. Until modern times relatively simple niello was common on the jewellery of the Levant, used in much the same way as in medieval Europe.
File:BoteZamora01-1-.JPG, Niello accents on the lock of the ivory "Box of Zamora", 900-964, Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus () was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The name refers to the different Muslim states that controlled these territories at various times between 711 and 1492. At its greatest geographical extent, it occupied most o ...
File:Tripod dish, Iran, Seljuk period, late 12th or early 13th century AD, silver with gilt, engraving, and niello - Cincinnati Art Museum - DSC04010.JPG, Seljuk dish, c. 1200
File:Box with cover MET DP137825 (cropped).jpg, 15th century box, brass with silver and niello, perhaps from Egypt
File:Ottoman cavalvry shield-on display 2-IMG 9628-black.jpg, 16-17th century Ottoman cavalvry shield with niello on central boss
File:Helmet MET DP153240.jpg, Ntello ihe top zonarea a helmet from Crimea
Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...
or South Russia, 1818–19
File:Dagger (Kindjal) with Scabbard MET sfsb26.35.8a(5-15-07)s2d1.jpeg, Khanjali, perhaps Kubachi, Dagestan, 1800–1850
File:Flintlock Rifle MET DP166297.jpg, Flintlock
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
gun, Kubachi, Dagestan, 1800–1850, also with silver and gold
Thai jewellery
Nielloware jewellery
and related items from
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
were popular gifts from American soldiers taking "R&R" in Thailand to their girlfriends/wives back home from the 1930s to the 1970s. Most of it was completely handmade jewellery.
The technique is as follows: the artisan would carve a design into the silver, leaving the figure raised by carving out the "background". He would then use the niello inlay to fill in the "background". After being baked in an open fire, the alloy would harden. It would then be sanded smooth and buffed. Finally, a silver artisan would add minute details by hand.
Filigree was often used for additional ornamentation. Nielloware is classified as only being black and silver coloured. Other coloured jewellery originating during this time uses a different technique and is not considered niello.
Many of the characters shown in nielloware are characters originally found in the
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
legend ''
Ramayana
The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...
''. The Thai version is called Ramakien. Important Thai cultural symbols were also frequently used.
Ingredients and technique

Various slightly different recipes are found by modern scientific analysis, and historic accounts. In early periods, niello seems to have been made with a single sulphide, that of the main metal of the piece, even if it was gold (which would be difficult to handle). Copper sulphide niello has only been found on Roman pieces, and
silver sulphide is used on silver. Later a mixture of metals was used; Pliny gives a mixed sulphide recipe with silver and copper, but seems to have been some centuries ahead of his time, as such mixtures have not been identified by analysis on pre-medieval pieces. Most Byzantine and early medieval pieces analysed are silver-copper, while silver-copper-lead pieces appear from about the 11th century onwards.
The ''
Mappae clavicula'' of about the 9th century,
Theophilus Presbyter (1070–1125) and
Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571) give detailed accounts, using silver-copper-lead mixtures with slightly different ratios of ingredients, Cellini using more lead. Typical ingredients have been described as: "sulfur with several metallic ingredients and
borax";
"copper, silver, and lead, to which had been added sulphur while the metal was in fluid form ...
he designwas then brushed over with a solution of borax..."
While some recipes talk of using furnaces and
muffles to melt the niello, others just seem to use an open fire. The necessary temperatures vary with the mixture; overall silver-copper-lead mixtures are easier to use. All mixtures have the same black appearance after work is completed.
[Craddock]
See also
*
Damascening
*
Yemenite silversmithing (carries a full description on how niello was applied to jewellery in Yemen)
*
Kubachi silver
Notes
References
*Craddock, P. T., "Metal" V. 4, ''
Grove Art Online'', Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 1 Oct. 2017
Subscription required*Craddock, Paul and Giumlia-Mair, Allessandra, "Hsmn-Km, Corinthian bronze, Shakudo: black patinated bronze in the ancient world", Chapter 9 in ''Metal Plating and Patination: Cultural, technical and historical developments'', Ed. Susan La-Niece and Craddock, P. T., 2013, Elsevier, , 9781483292069
google books* Dickinson, Oliver et al., ''The Aegean Bronze Age'', 1994, Cambridge University Press, , 9780521456647
The Aegean Bronze Age* Ganina, O. (1974), ''The Kiev museum of historic treasures'' (A. Bilenko, Trans.). Kiev, Ukraine: Mistetstvo Publishers
* Johns, Catherine, ''The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions'', 1996, Psychology Press, , 9781857285666
google books* Landau, David, and Parshall, Peter. ''The Renaissance Print'', Yale, 1996,
* Levinson Jay A. (ed.), ''Early Italian Engravings from the National Gallery of Art'', National Gallery of Art, Washington (Catalogue), 1973, LOC 7379624
*
Maryon, Herbert, ''Metalwork and Enamelling'', 1971 (5th ed.). Dover, New York,
google books* Lucas A and Harris J. ''Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries'', 2012 (reprint, 1st edn 1926), Courier Corporation, , 9780486144948
google books*"Newman": R. Newman, J. R. Dennis, & E. Farrell, "a Technical Note on Niello", ''Journal of the American Institute for Conservation'', 1982, Volume 21, Number 2, Article 6 (pp. 80 to 85)
* Osborne, Harold (ed), "Niello", in ''The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts'', 1975, OUP,
* Smith, W. Stevenson, and Simpson, William Kelly. ''The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt'', 3rd edn. 1998, Yale University Press (Penguin/Yale History of Art),
* Thomas, Nancy R., "The Early Mycenaean Lion up to Date", pp. 189–191, in ''Charis: Essays in Honor of Sara A. Immerwahr'', ''Hesperia'' (Princeton, N.J.) 33, 2004, ASCSA, , 9780876615331
google books*Zarnecki, George and others; ''English Romanesque Art, 1066–1200'', 1984, Arts Council of Great Britain,
Further reading
* Dittell, C. (2012), ''Overview of Siam Sterling Nielloware,'' Tampa, FL (or ''Survey of Siam Sterling Nielloware,'' (E-Book), Bookbaby Publishers)
* Giumlia-Mair, A. 2012. "The Enkomi Cup: Niello versus Kuwano", in V. Kassianidou & G. Papasavvas (eds.) ''Eastern Mediterranean Metallurgy and Metalwork in the Second Millennium BC. A Conference in Honour of James D. Muhly'', Nicosia, 10–11 October 2009, 107–116. Oxford & Oakville: Oxbow Books.
* Northover P. and La Niece S., "New Thoughts on Niello", in ''From Mine to Microscope: Advances in the Study of Ancient Technology'', eds. Ian Freestone, Thilo Rehren, Shortland, Andrew J., 2009, Oxbow Books, , 9781782972778
google books* Oddy, W., Bimson, M., & La Niece, S. (1983). "The Composition of Niello Decoration on Gold, Silver and Bronze in the Antique and Mediaeval Periods". ''Studies in Conservation'', 28(1), 29–35. doi:10.2307/1506104
JSTOR
External links
*
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