How is Moroccan brass and copperware engraved?

The Seffarine square in Fes is one of the great sensory experiences of Morocco — a small open courtyard where coppersmiths have worked for something like a thousand years, and the air rings continuously with the bright, overlapping clang of dozens of hammers on metal. The first time I stepped into it I had to raise my voice to be heard. All around, men sit among mountains of gleaming trays, cauldrons, teapots and lamps, and you can follow a piece from flat sheet to finished treasure.

It begins with raw sheets of brass or copper. The smith cuts the metal and then hammers it — relentlessly, thousands of blows — over anvils and shaped iron stakes to raise a flat disc into a deep bowl, a domed lid, the swelling belly of a teapot. This raising and planishing is what gives hand-made copperware its faint, lovely dimpled texture. The forms are joined by soldering or by folding and hammering the seams, all by hand and by eye.

The decoration is engraving, and it is done freehand. Resting the piece on a bed of pitch or on his knee, the craftsman holds a fine steel chisel against the surface and taps it with a little hammer, walking the tool along to chase out flowing arabesques, Quranic calligraphy, eight-pointed stars and dense geometric borders. There is no printed guide — the pattern lives in his hands. Watching a master cover a wide tray in intricate engraving, line after confident line, is genuinely hypnotic. The finished piece is polished to a high shine, and anything meant to hold food or tea is lined inside with tin to keep it safe.

Seffarine in Fes is the heartland, but you will also find coppersmiths in the metal souks of Marrakech and Tetouan. Our guides can lead you into the square and into a working stall rather than a showroom, so you hear the hammers and watch the chisel at work. Stand a while, let the noise wash over you, and you will carry the sound of Seffarine home with you whether or not you buy the teapot.