Historical Metallurgy

Abstracts

2023-05-30T15:19:26+00:00

The abstracts are edited by Janet Lang. The Honorary Editors would like to acknowledge her continuing help, and that of others who contribute abstracts. Where no source is given, the abstract has been adapted from that provided by the author(s) of the paper.

The Enkomi Cup

2023-05-18T18:36:12+00:00

Macrophotographs of the Enkomi Cup have been examined to assess the cracking damage in the Cup metal, a silver alloy. The resulting interpretations and their implications indicate that the cracks are most probably due to long-term stress corrosion that stopped well before excavation and restoration. It is concluded that no additional restoration and conservation measures are needed.

The assay and refining of gold in the post-medieval Islamic world

2023-05-18T18:54:39+00:00

This paper describes the analysis of the Moroccan gold coins, jewellery and ingots from the 17th-century Salcombe Bay Treasure. Their trace element content gives information on the likely provenance of the gold and their fineness gives information on both quality control and refining methods. These can be compared to the methods described in the contemporary Al-asdāf al-munfadda ^can ahkām ^cilm sancat addīnār wal-fidda, an important Moroccan treatise on gold assay and refining, complied by al-Djaznā’ī. The treatise is both technical and practical and relates specifically to gold coins, jewellery and ingots. The methods outlined in the treatise are compared with other contemporary descriptions from Europe and India.

Collaborative Artisanship

2023-05-18T18:43:48+00:00

During Louis XIV’s reign, royal medals were fabricated in a workshop called the Monnaie des Médailles, situated at the heart of artisanal production at the Louvre. Medals were produced by a series of men appointed by the king, but the Monnaie des Médailles achieved administrative perfection under master goldsmith Nicholas Delaunay, who transformed the workshop into a space of performative display, where the king’s most important visitors could marvel at the quality of medalmaking equipment and witness the process of medal striking. Although scholars of medals tend to attribute specific medals to individual artists, struck medals do not correspond to contemporary ideas about the work of art’s authorship. Here, we reconstruct six stages of making – design, modelling, production of punches, dies and flans, followed by striking – to elucidate the artisanal process and place these objects back into the hands of their producers.

The British Iron Act 1750

2023-05-18T18:47:24+00:00

In the Iron Act 1750, the British Parliament sought to encourage the production of iron in America, but to discourage its manufacture into finished wrought iron goods. It thus prohibited the erection or continuance of iron processing works of various kinds. This article examines these processes to provide context for the Act. It also reviews the returns that it required from colonial governors, which provide some details of the American iron industry at that period and particularly of existing works for the prohibited processes, and the extent and significance of iron imports from America.