Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-cjp7w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T01:25:44.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Niello: an Historical and Technical Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Susan La Niece
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Niello is a black material composed of one or more metal sulphides. It contrasts particularly effectively with the metal when inlaid or fused into a recessed design in gold or silver, but is also found on bronze and brass. X-ray diffraction analysis of niello from 180 objects spanning the period between the first century A.D. and the present, from Europe and the Middle and Far East, has established that, as a general rule, Roman niello is composed of the sulphide of one metal only, either silver or copper and, furthermore, the niello is usually made of the same metal as that of the object into which it was inlaid. Sulphides made with silver and copper together were introduced at the end of the fifth century, though silver sulphides were still being made, particularly in the areas dominated by Rome. The manufacture of niello of more than one metal represents a technological advance as, unlike the single sulphides, they can be fused into an engraved design without damaging the metalwork. Lead was added to the ingredients as early as the eleventh century A.D. in eastern Europe. This composition will flow well when melted and therefore can be used to fill more complex designs. Leaded niello superseded the other types almost completely and is still made today. Gold silver sulphide, a hitherto unrecognized type of niello, was found on a number of gold items of various dates.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , September 1983 , pp. 279 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Laffineur, R., ‘L'incrustation à l'époque mycénienne’, L'antiquité classique, xliii (1974), 5–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Marinatos, S. and Hirmer, M., Crete and Mycenae (London, 1960).Google Scholar

3 Cooney, J. D., ‘Siren and Ba, birds of a feather’, Bull. Cleveland Museum of Art, lv (1968), 262–71.Google Scholar

4 Schaeffer, C. F. A., Enkomi-Alasia, nouvelles missions en Chypre, 1946–1950 (Paris, 1952), pp. 379–89, figs. 116–22, pl. cxvi; technical report by H. J. Plenderleith on p. 381.Google Scholar

5 Claringbull, G. F. and Moss, A. A., ‘The Enkomi silver cup’, Nature, clxxxvii (1960), 1051.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Lucas, A. and Harris, J. R., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th edn. (London, 1962), pp. 249–51.Google Scholar

7 Hind, A. M., Nielli in the British Museum (London, 1936).Google Scholar

8 Ashbee, C. R., The Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture (New York, 1967), pp. 7–9.Google Scholar

9 Shelagh Weir gives the reason for the great popularity of niello amongst the Bedouin as the erroneous belief that the niello decoration will not take on low-grade silver: The Bedouin (London, 1976), p. 61.Google Scholar

10 Moss, A. A., ‘Niello’, Studies in Conservation, i (1953), 49–62Google Scholar, and Antiq. J. xxxiii (1952), 75–7.Google Scholar

11 The author, however, has found no difficulty in fusing this type of niello to well-cleaned bronze.

12 Craddock, P. T., Lang, J. and Painter, K. S., ‘Roman horse-trappings from Fremington Hagg, Reeth, Yorkshire, N.R.’, B.M. Quarterly, xxxvii, 1–2 (1977), 9–17.Google Scholar

13 Schweizer, F. in M. Lazovic, N. Durr, H. Durand, C. Houriet and F. Schweizer, ‘Objets byzantins de la collection du Musée d'Art et d'Histoire’, Genava, xxv (1977), 5–62.Google Scholar

14 Dennis, J. R., ‘Niello: a technical study’, Papers Presented by Trainees at the Art Conservation Training Programs Conference (Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1979), pp. 83–95Google Scholar. Also, Newman, R., Dennis, J. R. and Farrell, E., ‘A technical note on niello’, J. American Inst. Conservation, xxi (1982), 80–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Rosenberg, M., ‘Niello bis zum Jahre 1000 nach Christi, Frankfurt’ (1924)Google Scholar; reprinted in Rosenberg, M., Geschichte der Goldschmiedkunst auf technischer Grunḍlage (Osnabruck, 1972).Google Scholar

16 Oddy, W. A., Bimson, M. and Niece, S. La, ‘The composition of niello decoration on gold, silver and bronze in the antique and medieval periods’, Studies in Conservation, xxviii (1983), 35.Google Scholar

17 Translation by H. Rackham from the Loeb edition (London, 1956), p. 99.

18 Brailsford, J. W., Guide to the Antiquities of Roman Britain, British Museum (London, 1964), p. 54, no. 12 and pl. 14.Google Scholar

19 Berthelot, M. P. E., La chimie au moyen age (Paris, 1893); facsimile reprint, Amsterdam, 1967.Google Scholar

20 Translation from Smith, C. S. and Hawthorne, J. G., ‘Mappae Clavicula, a little key to the world of medieval techniques’, Trans. American Phil. Soc. n.s. lxiv, 4 (1974), 57.Google Scholar

21 Ibid., 58.

22 Ibid., 36, 40 and 58.

23 Dodwell, C. R., Theophilus. De Diversis Artibus (London, 1961), p. xiv.Google Scholar

24 Merrifield, M. P., Original Treatises Dating from the XIIth to XVIIIth Centuries on the Arts of Painting on Oil (London, 1849), 2 vols.Google Scholar

25 Moss, op. cit. (note 10), p. 52.

26 Hawthorne, J. G. and Smith, C. S., Theophilus: on Divers Arts (New York, 1979), chs. 28 and 29, pp. 104 and 105.Google Scholar

27 Ibid., ch. 31.

28 Ibid., pp. 104 and 105.

29 Ibid., p. 108.

30 Ashbee, op. cit. (note 8).

31 Allan, J. W., Persian Metal Technology. 700–1300 A.D. (London, 1978).Google Scholar

32 Ibid., pp. 19 and 20.

33 Maryon, H., Metalwork and Enamelling, 5th edn. (New York, 1971), p. 164.Google Scholar

34 Untracht, Oppi, Metal Techniques for Craftsmen (London, 1969), p. 191.Google Scholar

35 Azaroff, L. V. and Buerger, M. J., The Powder Method in X-ray Crystallography (New York, 1958).Google Scholar

36 Soren, R. K., ‘X-ray diffraction techniques for small samples’, American Mineralogist, xlv (1960), 1104–8.Google Scholar

37 Op. cit. (note 10), pp. 50–2, for description of how this was made.

38 Op. cit. (note 18), p. 38, no. 6 and pl. 18.

39 Skinner, B. J., ‘The system Cu-Ag-S’, Economic Geology, lxi, no. 1 (1966), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

40 Deer, W. A., Howie, R. A. and Zussman, J., Rock Farming Minerals, v (London, 1962), pp. 180–5.Google Scholar

41 Berry, L. G. and Thompson, R. M., X-ray Powder Data for Ore Minerals, the Peacock Alias, The Geol. Soc. America (New York, 1962).Google Scholar

42 Djurle, S., ‘An X-ray study on the system Cu-S’, Acta Chem. Scandinavica, xii (1958), 1415–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 Ibid., 1427–36.

44 Roseboom, E. H., ‘Djurleite, Cu1.98S, a new mineral’, American Mineralogist, xlvii (1962), 1181–4.Google Scholar

45 Hall, E. T., Schweizer, F. and Toller, P. A., ‘X-ray fluorescence analysis of museum objects’, Archaeometry, xv no. 1 (1973), 53–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

46 Die Zeit der Staufer, exhibition catalogue (Stuttgart, 1977), no. 652.Google Scholar

47 Walters, H. B., Catalogue of the Silver Plate (Greek, Etruscan and Roman) in the British Museum (London, 1921), no. 154.Google Scholar

48 Card no. 20–461 in the JCPDS Powder Diffraction File. The mineral, utenbogaardtite, has been identified in silver-gold deposits from Nevada and Indonesia. See Barton, Mark D., ‘The Ag-Au-S system’, Economic Geology, lxxv (1980), 303–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 Dalton, O. M., Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities in the British Museum (London 1901), no. 253–4.Google Scholar

50 Dalton, O. M., Catalogue of Finger Rings in the British Museum (London, 1912), nos. 867 and 1777 respectively.Google Scholar

51 Card no. 26–575 in the JPCDS Powder Diffraction File, op. cit. (note 18), pl. XVII, p. 56, no. 4.

52 See note 12.

53 Avent, Richard, Anglo-Saxon Disc and Composite Brooches, Part II, B.A.R. no. 11 (Oxford, 1975), no. 110.Google Scholar

54 Unpublished except in the Victoria and Albert Museum's jewellery gallery handlist (room 92, case III, board A). Bought in 1858, source unknown.

55 Dalton, O. M., A Guide to the Medieval Room, British Museum (London, 1967), p. 14, pl. II.Google Scholar

56 Ashbee, op. cit. (note 8), p. 9.

57 Unpublished.

58 Bought by Dr. P. A. Andrews in Istanbul or Ankara.