Brass still glows in Old Lahore

In corner workshops near Lahori Gate, artisans use metal to carve out a piece of art

LAHORE: There was a time when brass was as important to the then known world’s economy as oil is today. From daily use utensils to weapons and armour, brass was everywhere and in everything.

Artisans who worked brass into priceless artefacts were as highly regarded as IT professionals are today. Nowadays, though, brass items are little more than novelty pieces people decorate their drawing rooms with and brass artisans are confined to corner workshops such as those that dot the area around Lahori Gate in Lahore’s Old City.

Rana Muhammad Jamil is one such artisan who has kept the millennia-old coppersmith tradition alive. “When my family settled in the Chiri Marana area after migrating to Lahore upon the cre
ation of Pakistan, me and my siblings were unable to obtain education,” recalled Jamil. “So when we grew older, we began learning the art of working brass into impressive utensils from our cousin. I have practised the art ever since.”

There may not be as huge a demand as there once was for his expertise, but Jamil said he still earns enough to feed his family. “I get a decent number of orders. There are still many brass item enthusiasts who commission work from me. Many large restaurants specialising in traditional cuisine also contact us to provide items for decoration,” he said.

The price of the item depends on the skill level of the artisan, the intricacy of design and the time it takes to make it. A common jug, for instance takes two to three days to make and costs between Rs2,000 to Rs3,000. As it was in the Mughal era, most work is still done by hand. The only mechanisation employed is for polishing the brass items. However, it is not always necessary to make a brass item from scratch.

According to Haroon Hayat, who runs a brass item shop in Lahore’s Rang Mahal, they sometimes purchase premade simple brass utensils and other items for refurbishment. “Sometimes, we are contacted by villagers who sell their old brass items in order to buy newer steel utensils,” he said. “We carry out repairs as needed, polish and sometimes add designs to them, turning them into masterpieces.”

“This tradition may be disappearing as time goes on,” admitted Hayat. “But even today, there are artisans whose designs turn these brass items, old and new, into pricey works of art,” he added.