Kyrgyz Blacksmiths and Jewelers of the 18th-20th Centuries

Blacksmithing and Jewelry Art

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The processing of metals, known to the Kyrgyz since ancient times, and the technical and artistic techniques developed by the 18th-20th centuries, reveal continuity with ancient traditions. Blacksmiths (temirchi, temirusta, kara usta, and in northern regions sometimes darqan) provided tools and equipment for crafts, agricultural production, and household industries. The master performed all the work himself: preparing the metal, making products, and finishing them. As a rule, the same person was both a blacksmith and a jeweler, but some specialized more in silver processing, while others focused on iron (Burkovsky, 1958, p. 80).

The set of blacksmithing tools included: bellows (kooruk), anvil (dyoshu), several hammers (balka, teke balka, midzduu balka, bytkyladych balka), sledgehammer (barskaya, bazgan or chon balka), several tongs (kychkach, attish), scissors (kaichy), chisels (keskich), punches or broaches (teshkich, chopsou), bottom punches (iz salgich), nailers (myk bash, mykcheger), crucibles for melting silver, tin, or solder (choichok, danaker eritkich), knives for trimming growths on hooves (symtarach), various stamps (kalyp), chisels (chapky), engraving cutters (kalam, oyguch), punches, undercuts, files (ogyo), grindstones (kairaktash), pokers (kosyo), vices (tishteek, sapsalga), and others.

Jeweler's tools were made by the jewelers themselves or by blacksmiths. Some of them were passed down through inheritance.

Metalworking masters were respected in society. For example, the famous blacksmith and jeweler Kuluke Kulukeev from the village of Toktogul in the Jalal-Abad region was sung about by the akyn T. Satylganov:

If you are a master, be skilled like Kuluke,
Serve as an immortal example among the Kyrgyz people,
He melted iron in the fire, they called him a skilled master.
He made spears and guns, you are renowned, jeweler.
He made silver harness, you are renowned, Kuluke.

Jewelers created a variety of women's jewelry, costume details, toiletry items, household goods; they decorated saddles and horse harnesses with plates and overlays, men's belts, hunting gear, weapons, musical instruments, wooden and leather dishes, and much more. Silver in ingots (Chinese yambs) came from traders, and they also used silver coins ("ulpuya" or "seer") minted in Russia, Kashgar, Bukhara, and even Poland. Auxiliary raw materials (lead, tin, copper, alum, etc.) were also purchased and sometimes mined in the mountains (Sulaymanov, 1982, pp. 16-19; idem, 1983, p. 19).

Masters possessed intricate carving (perforated or "carving on the opening"), edge rofiling, stamping, engraving, blackening (zoot, zotker or saat), granulation, filigree, inlay, enameling, and inserted colored stones and corals into silver products. The technique of notching or embossed taushirovka was widely practiced - applying foil or wire made of silver onto iron plates. In the first case, the surface becomes entirely silver-plated; in the second, the wire was hammered along the edge in a continuous line (ornament suu "water"). Between the lines, zigzag, wavy, triangular, and other ornaments (iyrek) could be obtained. The free space in the middle of the plate was filled with the ornament yspyly. Thanks to blackening (by heating in a forge), iron acquired a brown color, which externally resembles blackening.

Using the stamping technique, hollow parts (cup, bakaloor, kovalna, nayma, tumarcha, teek, etc.) of women's hair ornaments chach uchtuk, cholpu were made from thin silver plates, usually consisting of two soldered halves. The matrix was made from the horn of a mountain goat or ram or from iron, and the stamp, repeating the pattern on the matrix, was made from hard metal. The stamped ornament "korchego" (for horse gear, belts, yurt details), consisting of one half, was filled with tin inside.

At the turn of our era, a polychrome style of jewelry made of gold, silver, and bronze emerged in the territory of Eurasia, created using forging, stamping, granulation, inlay, and soldering techniques. The polychrome style has survived to this day in the works of Central Asian-Kazakh masters - jewelers. Not only the technique itself but also the names of silver or gold beads (zerni) among the peoples of the region are similar: large beads - zygirek, smaller ones - zire, and very small ones - sirke (zygyr - flax seeds, zire - cumin, sirke - "louse").

"Yspyly (phonetic variants "yslymy", "islimi") - one of the common ornamental types of a plant nature in the form of a continuous wavy stem with branches. It decorates not only metal objects - silver bracelets, silver-plated metal overlays for horse harnesses, and others; among the Kyrgyz, it is often found in embroidery, on felt products, etc. Among other peoples of Central Asia, particularly Uzbeks and Tajiks, the ornament islimi has multiple variations.

Leather Products among the Kyrgyz in the Late 19th - Early 20th Centuries