The art of metalwork

With the exception of weapons and personal ornaments, passed down from father to son, the best preserved items have been religious objects which were protected by both the clergy and families. While there are few remains, however, from Greater Armenia or Cilicia, a host of items appeared from the 18th century onwards, once the diaspora was well established in Constantinople, Persia and India.

The art of metalwork was then no longer exercised only for objects of worship (chalices, incense burners, patens, ciboriums, crosses), religious works (binding Bibles and Gospels) or liturgical vestments (chasuble collars, mitres), weapons or jewellery, but also for domestic objects (dishes, containers of all kinds, trays, candleholders, coffee cup holders, snuffboxes), toiletries (bridal trousseau, mirrors) and adornment (belts and jewellery).

As is the case with most minor arts, the origin of some objects has often been attributed to the place of creation itself rather than to the Armenian diaspora that created it.
There is, however, some evidence that enables us to designate the craftsmen with certainty:

- A firman of 1806 relating to the corporation of the goldsmiths of Constantinople mentions the names of eighteen master craftsmen, of which seventeen are Armenian.

- Several generations of chief goldsmiths to the Ottoman sultans' courts in the 18th and 19th centuries came from the Duz family.

- There is stylistic similarity between Christian objects of Armenian origin and secular objects.

- There are inscriptions in Armenian characters that appear on many copper or silver coins, including the signature of the craftsman, the name of the client, and the dedicatory inscriptions.