Egyptian "Tomb Tray"-translate the hieroglyphics?

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Thx, could you tell me why? Always eager to learn.

 

Not sure why,your question?

The OP's statement in the first post"I liked it due to the fine engraving".

Simple answer is the "plate" is chased and not engraved,engraving removes metal.Chasing compresses/moves metal,the back side of the plate shows it was chased on pitch or a wood surface.

 

Hmmm. Thanks. One of those situations where either term would work maybe? I think I should post a macro image of the tooling and you'd see what might lead me to think "engraved." I'll look at the back again too, I don't recall images showing thru to the back to any extent, but then my memory isn't the greatest.

 

Both terms involve completely different styles of metal work, as Blue has pointed out.

 

Looked up chasing and chasing hammer, but you never know about some stuff on the web:

http://www.engravingglossary.com/Hand Engraving Glossary C.htm

[edit: this site seems to have a "minority opinion" of chasing and a better def is in the next post]

I can say that the tray doesn't match this site's def of chasing, which it equates to repousse, a design all tapped in by striking the reverse. There is indeed an out-of-focus pattern visible on the reverse, such as if press dies had been used to lay out parts of the design, or perhaps just the repeated taps of hammer and chisel on the face caused the soft copper to yield a bit into what was probably a wooden workbench.

I'm still studying the topic, we'll probably get some more opinions come daylight in the US, is already mid-morning in UK, and of course they are all in church.

 

Here's a def from the Silver Magpies site.

The important difference seems to be that in chasing you beat on the workpiece from the front with forming tools but you don't cut at all. Engraving involves cutting the metal with sharp tools, often propelled by a hammer or pneumatic tool that works like a tiny jackhammer.

Harold Newman in An Illustrated Dictionary of Silverware says”

“Chasing. The technique of decorating by handwork the front surface (my emphasis added) of an article of silver by indenting it and so raising the design (without cutting into the metal and removing any of it as in engraving), using a great number of differently shaped tracing tolls (‘tracers’) and a chasing hammer.”

He goes on to describe some specialist or sub-categories of chasing, one of which is germain to your question Elizabeth….”When used to enhance from the front a design made by casting, by sharpening or adding details not satisfactorily formed by the casting process, it is called cast chasing.”

 

Here are some macro photos of the Tomb Tray, hopefully they will facilitate a decision on chased vs. engraved! Note that the tiny circles on the bird and fish were made with a punch like a nail-set and not engraved. Most areas of very fine hatching were done by striking repeatedly with a narrow chisel which would be chasing. So it looks like the tray has both engraving and chasing.

 

Looks like Steve messed up the first description of chasing,not sure why no one spotted it.

The first set of photos can be magnified with the computer more than this last batch.The 3 circles above the bird's tail show straight tool downward punches and not the smooth cut of an engraving tool.

 

Thanks, I'm still learning. I would think if downward pressure only were used where you indicate, the copper displaced would raise up noticeably at the edges of any line made like that, yet it is perfectly flat there and in other similar places. But what do I know, not much.

 

I see no engraving here...

 

For the benefit of those not familiar with hand-engraving, here's a video of a master engraver engraving a steel plate. To see just the actual engraving without his intro remarks, start watching at 5 minute point.

 

After considerable study it seems to me that some of the hashing, tiny repeated circles, etc. which were used for shading on the piece were made with vertically-held tools such as punches and chisels.

The deep, long curved and straight lines must have been made with a burin. At the ends of such lines you will often see where the craftsman has overrun his border line, and often those overruns come to a sharp point as the burin is lifted from the work. The working contact portion of the point of the burin used to make the long curved and straight lines is triangular.

As long as you can see what kind of tool made the various marks you can probably avoid semantics regarding the overall process.