I

Indian enamelwork, known as minakari, appears to have been introduced during the Mogul period to the court of the Emperor Akbar by Persian craftsmen who were acquainted with the basse taille work of Western Europe (see Persian enamels). Sir George Birdwood reported in 1880 that the art of enamelling 'is practised everywhere in India, at Lucknow and Benares, at Multan and Lahore, and in Kangra and Cashmere, but nowhere in such perfection as at Jaipur'. He described Kashmir enamels, in which 'the ground, of the usual shawl-pattern ornamentation cut in gold, is filled in with turquoise blue. Sometimes a dark green is intermixed with the blue, perfectly harmonised by the gold, and producing a severely artistic effect'. He also mentions trinkets made at Pertabghar (Pratapgarh) in Rajputana

apparently by melting a thick layer of green enamel on a plate of burnished gold, and while it is still hot, covering it with thin gold cut into mythological, or hunting and other pleasure scenes; in which, amid a delicate network of floriated scrolls, elephants, tigers, deer, peacocks, doves, and parrots are the shapes most conspicuously represented. After the enamel has hardened the gold work is etched over with a graver so as to bring out the characteristic details of the ornamentation. In some cases it would seem as if the surface of the enamel was first engraved, and then the gold rubbed into the pattern so produced, in the form of an amalgam, and fixed by fire.... The enamels of Ratam in Central India are identical in general character with those of Pertabghar, but are deep blue in colour, not green.