A window in Amsterdam
Yogya silver cigarette case - Indonesia
Sold.
Measurements 7,5 x 10 cm, 123 gram, marked "800 PE".
Yogya silver (Dutch: Djokja) is a general name for a type of Indonesian silver produce from the 1930ies until now.
Beginning 20th century local silversmith started lacking commissions due to the impoverishment of the nobility. As the silver artisans went out of business, a Dutch Governer's wife Van Gesseler Verschuir took it upon her to maintain the art by encouraging them to produce high quality utensilia for the Dutch using indigenous motives.
Numerous items like jewellery, ashtrays, lighters, cigarette cases, any possible type of cutlery, vases, candlesticks and photo frames were made. The main technique is repoussage and partly blackening of the silver, creating the typical dark “background”. The silver used is low quality ("800"), but the labour and knowledge required to make it is very high. Most of these items, produced from the 1930ies to the 1960ies, cannot be made any more as knowledge and practice disappeared. From the 1970ies onwards the - also laborious - filigree work is what is made on Java.
For more information, see "Yogya Silver: Renewal of a Javanese Handicraft" by Pienke W.H. Kal or the web site www.djokja.nl/ - in Dutch.
Yogya silver cigarette case - Indonesia
Sold.
Measurements 7,5 x 10 cm, 123 gram, marked "800 PE".
Yogya silver (Dutch: Djokja) is a general name for a type of Indonesian silver produce from the 1930ies until now.
Beginning 20th century local silversmith started lacking commissions due to the impoverishment of the nobility. As the silver artisans went out of business, a Dutch Governer's wife Van Gesseler Verschuir took it upon her to maintain the art by encouraging them to produce high quality utensilia for the Dutch using indigenous motives.
Numerous items like jewellery, ashtrays, lighters, cigarette cases, any possible type of cutlery, vases, candlesticks and photo frames were made. The main technique is repoussage and partly blackening of the silver, creating the typical dark “background”. The silver used is low quality ("800"), but the labour and knowledge required to make it is very high. Most of these items, produced from the 1930ies to the 1960ies, cannot be made any more as knowledge and practice disappeared. From the 1970ies onwards the - also laborious - filigree work is what is made on Java.
For more information, see "Yogya Silver: Renewal of a Javanese Handicraft" by Pienke W.H. Kal or the web site www.djokja.nl/ - in Dutch.