Khatam kari

Khatam kari is a refined and meticulous work of inlay (marquetry), the earliest examples of which date back to the Safavid era: the Khatam was so appreciated by the court that some Princes learned the technique in the same way as music, painting or calligraphy.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Khatam technique declined, before being brought back into fashion under the reign of Reza Shah, during which craft schools were established in Tehran, Esfahan and Shiraz. "Khatam" means "inlay". “Khatam-kari” is therefore the “work of encrustations”. This technique involves the creation of motifs, mainly in the shape of a star, with incrustations of fine wooden sticks (ebony, teak, jujube, orange wood, rosewood sticks), brass (for the golden parts) and camel bones (for the white parts).

Ivory, gold and silver can also be used for collector coins. These rods are first assembled in triangular bundles, and then these again assembled and glued in bundles according to a strict order in order to form a cylinder of about 70cm, the edge of which shows the unity of the base of the final decoration: a six-pointed star contained in a hexagon. These cylinders are then sliced ​​into shorter cylinders, then compressed and dried between two wooden plates, before undergoing a final cut that makes slices about 1 mm thick. The latter are then ready to be plated and glued onto the support object to be decorated before being lacquered. They can be preheated to soften them, if the object is curved, so that they can perfectly match the curves. The decorated objects are legions: boxes, chess or backgammon (backgammon or tric-trac), picture frames, or even musical instruments. The Khatam technique can also be applied to the famous Persian miniatures, thus creating real works of art.