Antique jewelry glossary

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Overlay

The technique of decorating silverware by use of two sheets of silver and sweating them together (i.e. heating until they adhere). The process used by the Indians of southern-western United States involves cutting a design into one sheet and sweating it to other uncut flat sheet, then blackening the exposed areas of the bottom sheet to emphasize the design and to create the effect of a piece carved from a single solid sheet.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson