Damasceneware is one of the traditional crafts of Meknes and really nowhere else in Morocco. It is also practised in Toledo where gold is inset into elaborate abstract patterns against black metal backgrounds in methods which have remained the same for a thousand years. Presumably Meknes ware has the same origins and the skills were brought from Toledo by refugees from the reconquista but here silver is used instead of gold.
The silver is applied as a fine wire to base metal which has to be heated and beaten to darken it and hammered into shape before the pattern is applied and annealed to the surface. Peacocks, in particular, are atraditional design but market demand has caused the craftsmen to branch out into such non-moroccan additions as kangaroos.
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