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SILVER AND COPPERWARE
Both plain and engraved work is
executed to cater to the differing tastes of buyers, which include many American
tourists. The range of silverware is indeed wide: silver tea-sets, flower
vases, toilet sets, scent chests, ornamental picture-frames, cigarette-cases,
tumblers, etc. Among the flora and fauna, leaves of the chinar and the
lotus furnish the popular patterns. Designs of the lilac, a popular flower
of the Valley, are also wrought in silver.
The Kashmiri artisan also produces
excellent products of copper-ware consisting mostly of cooking pots and
samovars (tea-kettle of Russian origin) and sundry articles for the
household or the mantelpiece. There is a good demand for lovely copper trays
inlet into tables of carved walnut-wood, the carpenter working in co-operation
with the deft coppersmith. Enameled silver work is also pretty
 Papier-mâché craft,
peculiar
to Kashmir, was also introduced into the Valley by the great monarch, Sultan
Zain-ul-Abidin, who has been aptly called the Akbar of Kashmir. The products,
beautifully painted over with ornamental patterns, comprise picture-frames,
pen-cases, screens (which can view with the Chinese counterparts), tables,
tea-pots, writing sets, candle-sticks, handkerchief and tie boxes, vases, stamp
boxes and other utility goods whose need is now fairly widespread. Green fields
sloping towards the snow-capped mountains, sparkling streams running over
rounded rocks, shikaras and lotuses blooming on the lakes, are the favourite papier-mâché
patterns. The craftsmen have introduced brass and metal-lining for the new style
of papier-mâché goods which makes them more durable and useful.
WOOD-CARVING
Walnut and chinar wood,
abundant
in Kashmir, provides material for the wood-carving, which is among the best
known cottage industries of Kashmir.
 To make excellent furniture and
toilet articles such as chairs, cabinets, writing-or dining- tables, jewellery
boxes and ornamental caskets, which are greatly appreciated. Some of the walnut
wood products-cigar boxes and trays, table-tops, handkerchief and collar
boxes-are delicately carved. Floral designs of almost every conceivable variety
are made with great accuracy of detail in chased or raise work.
KHATAM-BAND
Khatam-band
is a speciality in
Kashmir woodwork and comprises ceilings of rooms, made from thin panels of pine
wood, cut into geometrical designs. Builders of houseboats have kept this old
craft alive.
In Kashmir the shrine of Khwaja
Naqshband, near the Jama Masjid of Srinagar, presents the best example of this
craft.
The Kashmiri carpentry and
wicker-work industries are notable. The boats (float-bottomed mostly) that
the carpenter makes are of many sizes, and include the famous house-boats, the
favourite residence of summer visitors. In wicker-work, Lunch and flower
baskets, chairs and tables and various other articles of common use are turned
out in elegant designs. Kangri, the Kashmiri chafing vessel, its earthen bowl
encased in wickerwork, is also made as an artefact ornamented with wicker rings
and coloured mica for the mantelpiece.
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