Metalwork has always been to India what ceramics are to China. During the fabled Mughal age, the craftsmen of the Sultans and Rajahs of India produced an astonishing variety of objects in gold and gold enamel, silver, brass, bronze, gilt copper and the Deccani alloy known as bidri. The finest of these are among the most striking and poetic utilitarian wares ever made, in addition to being of the most outstanding technical refinement. Order, beauty, richness, restraint and sensuousness describe the essence of these works of art, whose greatness derives form the meeting of two worlds. Such mingling of Hindu and Muslim sensibilities gave Mughal art the strength to endure, just as religious tolerance gave political strength to the Mughal emperors. This, the first book on the metalwork of Mughal India, illustrates all the great surviving objects, most of which have never been published before and are unknown to the western connoisseur.

Not available in the USA and Canada.

Mark Zebrowski, an American residing in London, spent several years in India. He worked for a year on the collections of Indian Art at the Musée Guimet, Paris, and later obtained a doctorate at Harvard University. His book Deccani Painting - the first comprehensive work on the exceptional paintings executed for the Sultans of the Deccan - appeared in 1983. He subsequently turned his attention to the decorative arts of the Mughal Empire and is the author of several articles on this largely unknown field. Gold, Silver and Bronze from Mughal India, the fruit of 15 years of investigation, is the first book on the subject.