niello (nielo)

[= F. nielle = Sp. niel, IMG:content-1360.png:[graphic][merged small] furrows with an alloy composed of silver, copper, lead, crude sulphur, and borax, thus producing the effect of a black drawing on the bright surface. The proce is of Italian origin, and is still extensively practised in Ru ia, where the finest niello is now produced. In many examples, conversely, the ground is cut out and inlaid with the black alloy, on which the design appears white or bright, as in the cut.2. An impre ion taken from the engraved surface before the incised lines have been filled up. It is from such impre ions, accidental or intentional, that the modern art of incised engraving on metal is held to have originated in the fifteenth century, in the shop of the Florentine goldsmith Finiguerra. niello or ward filled in with clay of a different color, producing a kind of mosaic.