Tar-kashi; in Ampezzan Ladin 'laoro da petà inze' ('work to be beaten in')
An Indian technique of inlaying metal into wood, brought to Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1881 by the English engineer John G. J. Coddington, who had seen it while accompanying the Prince of Wales in India. A design is drawn or traced onto wood, usually rosewood, and cut as a groove about 1.5 mm deep with fine chisels and gouges struck with a mallet; thin strips of brass, silver or copper, flattened in a small rolling machine, are beaten into the groove, and mother-of-pearl, colored rods or other inserts are set into the pattern. Gaps are closed with a filler of glue and rosewood dust, then the piece is sanded and polished. Ampezzans ignored the Indian name and called it 'work to be beaten in'. Taught at the Cortina art school from 1883, it became a hallmark souvenir of the valley: boxes, caskets, frames, furniture and church furnishings, and today small pendants and earrings. Each maker once kept a personal repertoire of motifs that others did not copy.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Not inscribed
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