Coppersmiths

Coppersmithing is part of a guild that also gathers tinsmiths. The former create items from copper while the latter make them by tin-plating. Since the items are made from copper, especially tableware, they were not only tin-plated, but also decorated with ornaments and engravings, which gave them an artistic dimension. The decorating was done mostly by women, known as savaćenje. It is a decorating method typical of Sarajevo and has survived to this day. The craft came to Bosnia and Herzegovina with the arrival of Ottoman Turks, and the Coppersmiths’ Bazaar in Sarajevo can be found at the same place where it was founded in the 16th century. Although copper-smiths' shops could be found in Vratnik, the centre of this craft was in the Oprkanj street in Bascarsija. This bazaar met the needs for copper-smith items of the entire Bosnia and Herzegovina. Coppersmiths could take pride in the most numerous tools of the trade and in more than seventy different products including dishes and tableware of various types and sizes, water vessels – ewers, jugs and pitchers, coffee-ware with jugs, coffee-pots and coffee cup holders, different sacred objects, lighting products, items for barber shops, items for baths, etc. The chief raw materials are copper, tin, lead and sal ammoniac, which were melted in high-temperature ovens and then poured in moulds. The work was extremely strenuous and demanded special equipment – parcel – which was kept moist at all times. The first of the coppersmiths in Sarajevo is mentioned in the year 1489. Their number gradually increased and they were able to found a guild in early 16th century. Theirs was the first guild whose members started trading in copper, tin and copper-smith products. First reports of this can be found in early 18th century, while trading did not appear in other guilds until the 19th century. Thanks to the Austria-Hungarian authorities, a special work-shop for hand-crafts was established, providing an additional stimulus to this activity.  

That this craft, and especially decorating, has a good perspective, is true from the fact that, apart from the renown hajji Nasir Jabučar, young coppersmiths Nermin Baščaušević, Ahmed Kobiljak and others are successful in their coppersmithing endeavours. All of their smithies are located in the tourist attraction in Sarajevo - the Kazandžiluk street.