Fourteenth-century Bahmani zinc-copper casting inlaid with pure silver wire and blackened using Bidar fort soil paste in Karnataka.
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The tradition & historical record
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Cast from an alloy of sixteen parts zinc to one part copper, vessels are engraved with fine steel chisels (kalam) and hammered flush with pure silver wire (tarakashi) or sheet motifs (teh-nishan). 1
When rubbed with a heated paste of ammonium chloride and alkaline soil taken from the unlit inner vaults of Bidar Fort, the zinc alloy oxidizes instantaneously to matte jet black while leaving the silver bright. 1
