01
Hand-drawn nastaliq flourish
Design & Conversation
Every commission begins with a dialogue. Sketches, references and your own intentions are translated into hand-drafted technical drawings — no two ever the same.
The Lion of Persepolis — Our Founding Emblem
Luxury & Unique · Handmade in Persia, Crafted in London
Est. — A Persian Lineage of Over 100 Years
Handmade fine art
metal works.
Sculptures and statues forged entirely by hand in gold, silver, copper and steel — without casting, without machinery, without compromise. From a single ateliér whose craft has passed quietly through five generations.
100+
Years of lineage
8
Featured works
3 m
Largest scale
10,000+
Hours per masterwork
Our Heritage
A legacy carried in the hands of one family.
Iwan Arch · Persian Architectural Motif
Xene Gallery was founded in the United Kingdom by a family from Persia whose practice of fine metal handwork stretches back more than a century. What began in a modest workshop — hammers, charcoal, hand-drawn templates — has matured into one of the few remaining ateliérs in the world devoted entirely to handmade sculpture in gold, silver, copper and steel.
Five generations of artisans have shaped the discipline you see today. Tools are inherited. Techniques are taught at the bench, never in textbooks. A young apprentice may spend two years learning to draw a single curve in copper before they are trusted with a finished surface.
We do not cast. We do not stamp. We do not employ CNC, laser, 3D-printing or any modern shortcut. Every petal, every feather, every fold of fabric is coaxed from sheet metal by hand — slowly, patiently, and without exception.
“Gold, copper, steel and silver — in the hands of our artists they soften like wax.”
A Century in Five Generations
The lineage, told in eras.
The story of Xene Gallery is not a corporate history. It is a chain of hands — five generations long — each teaching the next how to listen to metal. What follows is a brief walk through the moments that shaped the workshop you commission from today.
- 1910s
The First Anvil
In a small workshop in Isfahan, our founding artisan begins his apprenticeship under a master coppersmith. The bench, the hammer and the patience of teaching pass intact from his hands into ours. Drawings from this era — pressed between layers of waxed linen — still hang in the London atelier today.
- 1940s
From Coppersmith to Sculptor
The second generation moves beyond functional vessels into figurative sculpture: birds, horses, calligraphic panels and the first early lions. The atelier begins receiving commissions from collectors across Tehran, Tabriz and Shiraz, and the family name becomes quietly known among connoisseurs of Persian metalwork.
- 1970s
Refining the Discipline
Three siblings inherit the workshop and codify the techniques that still define Xene Gallery: pure handwork, no casting, no machinery, and the use of four metals only — gold, silver, copper and steel. The first monumental commission, a near-life-size lion in patinated copper, takes nineteen months to complete.
- 2000s
Crossing Continents
The family establishes a second studio in London, bringing their tools, their inherited drawings and their oldest hammers across the world. The new atelier opens its doors to private commissions from clients across Europe, the Gulf and North America while the Persian workshop continues its uninterrupted practice.
- Today
Five Generations at the Bench
Xene Gallery operates as a single family of artisans across two cities. Every piece — whether a desk-scale study or a three-metre installation — is made entirely by hand, signed, numbered and accompanied by a hand-bound certificate of authenticity tracing the materials and the makers.
The Process
From sheet metal to heirloom.
A small object may take a single month. A monumental piece — a great lion, a winged guardian, a three-meter ornamental tree — can occupy the workshop for up to five years and tens of thousands of hours of focused labour.
02
Iwan — the rising form
Sheet, Hammer, Anvil
Raw sheets of copper, silver, steel or 24-karat gold are shaped using only the artisan's hands and centuries-old tools. The form rises slowly, blow by blow, over weeks or months.
03
Girih — laid in silver thread
Inlay, Engraving & Chasing
Many of the patterns you see on a Xene piece are not engraved — they are inlaid. Hair-fine threads of pure silver and 24-karat gold are hammered, line by line, into a finely scored steel or copper ground. This is the Persian discipline of noghre-koobi and tala-koobi — silver and gold wire inlay. Where a design calls for depth instead of line, hardened punches and fine gravers chase the surface in the older language of qalamzani.
04
Boteh — the eternal teardrop
Patination & Gilding
Finishing techniques include controlled oxidation, gold leaf, silvering and selective polishing. Your design may be inlaid, engraved, gilded or silvered to make the piece entirely yours.
Inside the Atelier
The bench is the teacher.
Bazaar-e Mesgarha, Isfahan — the source quarter
Walk into the London atelier early in the morning and the first thing you will hear is silence — followed, almost ceremonially, by the slow, deliberate ring of a single planishing hammer. The studio is not a factory floor. It is a long, low-lit room of timber benches, felt-lined drawers of inherited tools, and shallow trays of charcoal where the metal is warmed before it is asked to move.
The benches themselves are arranged in pairs so that every working artisan sits opposite a colleague. There is no manager and no production line. The most senior craftsperson in the room takes the most demanding cut; the youngest apprentice begins, as everyone has begun, by drawing the same curve in copper for as long as it takes for the curve to become correct.
We work to a quiet rule: nothing leaves the bench before it is finished. There is no quality-control station, because the person who made the piece is the person responsible for it. If a flaw is discovered three weeks into a six-month project, the artisan will often unmake the work back to that point and begin again rather than disguise the mistake.
Our tools are old. The oldest hammer in regular use predates the Second World War. Several of our chasing punches were forged by the founder of the workshop and re-tempered by his grandson. Tools are not replaced — they are inherited, repaired, and passed on. When an artisan retires, their personal set of punches is wrapped in oiled linen and stored in a drawer that bears their name.
Materials
Four metals. Infinite alchemy.
24K Gold
Hand-pounded into leaf or worked solid. Used for gilding, accents and a small number of fully gilt monumental pieces.
Sterling Silver
Drawn into wire, raised into vessels, or applied as a luminous skin to copper and steel substrates.
Copper
Our most poetic metal. Soft enough to take fine chasing, warm enough to glow under any light, ancient enough to carry meaning.
Steel
The bone beneath the skin. Forged for structure in monumental works, then disguised, gilded or left to rust into deliberate patina.
Patterns We Engrave
The teardrop paisley — a Sassanid motif of cypress and flame, carried into our chased surfaces.
Interlocking geometric tilework — eight-point stars and lozenges, hand-laid into bordering frames.
The winged guardian of Persepolis — a recurring silhouette in our monumental commissions.
Persian Metalwork Traditions
Not engraving. Threads of metal.
A common misreading of Persian metalwork is to assume every fine line on a sculpture has been engraved. Many of the most luminous patterns on our pieces are not cut into the metal at all — they are laid onto it, line by line, in hair-fine threads of pure silver and 24-karat gold. The Persian names for these disciplines are نقره کوبی (noghre-koobi — silver wire inlay) and طلا کوبی (tala-koobi — gold wire inlay).
The artisan first prepares a steel or copper ground by scoring it with a dense cross-hatch of microscopic grooves — a surface that, under raking light, looks almost like dark velvet. A drawn thread of silver or gold, sometimes thinner than a sewing needle, is then placed along the line of the drawing and tapped down with a soft mallet until the thread bonds mechanically with the textured ground. The cross-hatch is burnished closed around it, and the thread becomes permanent. The result, once polished, reads as a glowing silver or gold drawing on a dark page — but every line is solid metal, cold-welded into the body of the piece.
Xene Gallery practices noghre-koobi and tala-koobi alongside the older Persian disciplines listed below. A single sculpture may combine four or five of these techniques: a coppersmith raises the form, a chaser texturises the ground, an inlay artisan lays the silver and gold, and an enameller adds selective colour. Each step is done by hand, by a different specialist, at the same long bench.
نقره کوبی
Noghre-koobi
Silver Wire Inlay
Often translated as silver-thread inlay or silver damascening, noghre-koobi is the discipline of hammering hair-fine threads of pure silver into a finely cross-hatched ground of steel or copper. The base metal is first scored with a network of microscopic grooves; the silver wire is then laid into the design and tapped down with a soft mallet until it bonds mechanically with the surface. The result reads, from a short distance, like a silver drawing on a darker page — but every line is a physical thread of metal, not engraving and not paint.
طلا کوبی
Tala-koobi
Gold Wire Inlay
The same technique as noghre-koobi, executed in 24-karat gold. Tala-koobi is reserved for the most demanding commissions: calligraphic verses, royal monograms, the inner medallions of large platters and the principal motifs on monumental works. A square palm of dense gold inlay can take an experienced artisan more than a week to lay; on a monumental piece the cumulative inlay can run into thousands of working hours.
قلم زنی
Qalamzani
Chasing & Engraving
The oldest of the Persian metal disciplines: the surface of copper, silver or steel is worked from the front with a family of hardened punches (qalam) that compress the metal into line, dot and relief. Unlike inlay, qalamzani removes nothing and adds nothing — it sculpts the existing surface. Many of our pieces combine qalamzani backgrounds with noghre-koobi or tala-koobi figures laid into them.
میناکاری
Mina-kari
Vitreous Enamelwork
Powdered glass, hand-mixed with metal-oxide pigments, is laid into chased copper cells and fired until it fuses into a glass-bright skin. Mina-kari brings the only true colour into our otherwise metallic palette — the deep cobalt, turquoise and crimson historically associated with the workshops of Isfahan. Used selectively on accents, medallions and ornamental borders.
ملیله کاری
Malileh-kari
Filigree
Drawn silver or gold wire, sometimes thinner than a human hair, is twisted, coiled and soldered into open lacework. Malileh-kari produces the airy, almost weightless quality you see in our smallest pieces — pendants, miniature vessels, the tracery within larger sculptural panels.
مس گری
Mes-gari
Coppersmithing
The foundation of the entire tradition. Sheet copper is annealed over charcoal, then raised over a stake by thousands of overlapping hammer blows until a flat disc becomes a vessel, a wing, a flank. Every monumental Xene work begins as a coppersmith's exercise — even when the finished piece will be entirely gilt or silvered.
Mina-kari · Vitreous Enamel
The deep cobalt and turquoise of Isfahan enamelwork are the only true colour we admit into our otherwise metallic palette. Powdered glass, hand-mixed with metal-oxide pigments, is laid into chased copper cells and fired until it fuses into a glass-bright skin — used selectively on accents, medallions and ornamental borders.
A Note on Reading Our Surfaces
When you stand in front of a Xene piece, run your eye slowly across the surface in raking light. Where a line catches the light differently from the surrounding metal, you are most likely looking at a thread of silver or gold laid by hand. Where a line sinks into shadow, it has been chased or engraved. Where a flat panel of warm colour glows beside the metal, that is mina-kari enamel. The piece is, in effect, a quiet conversation between several crafts — and several centuries — held together on a single surface.
The Collection
Recent works from the atelier.
Pieces range from a few centimetres to towering three-metre installations. Each is one of one. Each carries the marks of the hand that made it.
8 works · all unique
See each work in detail in the Signature Works section below.
Signature Works
Eight pieces, eight stories.
Each of the works below has been chosen by the family to represent a particular moment in the studio's recent practice. They are not the only pieces we have produced, but they are the eight we most often return to when explaining what handmade means.
Heritage Series
Atelier Study I
Hand-engraved Steel
An early study in hand-engraved steel, the first of a pair that established the rhythmic chasing language used across the Heritage Series. The surface is read like a page: each line of texture is a deliberate sentence carved by punch and graver, never by acid or laser.
Heritage Series
Atelier Study II
Mixed Metals
Companion to Atelier Study I, this piece marries cold steel with a thin skin of copper laid by hand and burnished into the underlying form. Held in raking light it appears almost liquid; held in shadow it returns to a quiet, architectural calm.
Master Collection
Garden of Cyrus
Copper & Silver
A botanical homage to the Pasargadae gardens of Cyrus the Great. Copper leaves are individually raised, annealed and tempered, then joined to a hand-drawn silver lattice. The piece is intentionally unsealed so its patina will continue to evolve in the home of its owner.
Master Collection
Whispering Crane
Patinated Copper
A solitary crane in patinated copper — a meditation on stillness. The wing is a single sheet, raised over six weeks across more than four thousand hammer strokes. The eye is a fragment of bronze set by hand, deliberately offset to give the bird its watchful, almost human attention.
Master Collection
Throne of Light
Steel & Gold Leaf
An architectural piece in steel inlaid with hand-applied gold leaf. The throne form references Achaemenid royal seats while the gilding follows a contemporary, asymmetric rhythm. Commissioned originally as a private altarpiece, it now anchors the Master Collection.
Atelier Edition
Court of Kings
Engraved Silver
A panoramic engraving in sterling silver depicting a procession of figures rendered in the language of Sassanian relief. Every figure is chased individually, then the field around them is hand-stippled to create the silvery, almost photographic depth the work is known for.
Atelier Edition
Caspian Tide
Copper, Steel & Gold
A horizontal landscape in copper, steel and gold leaf inspired by the Caspian shoreline at dawn. The waves are hammered from a single sheet; the gold sits only where the morning light would naturally catch the water. The piece is signed on its reverse and dated in Persian calendar script.
Atelier Edition
Eternal Vow
Mixed Metals
A pair of intertwined forms in mixed metals — a wedding commission that grew into a permanent edition of three. Of those three, two reside in private collections and the third remains in the atelier as a teaching piece for the next generation of apprentices.
Care & Provenance
A piece for a hundred years.
We make objects intended to outlive us. The promise of an heirloom is not only that it survives, but that it can be cared for, repaired, and re-homed with dignity. Here is what ownership looks like over the long arc of a Xene work.
Provenance
Every Xene Gallery work is delivered with a hand-bound dossier listing the artisan or artisans responsible, the metals used, the studio in which it was made, and the date the piece left the bench. The dossier is signed in ink and matched to a discreet engraving on the work itself.
Care
Our pieces are designed to be lived with, not stored. Copper and silver will continue to develop their patina over decades; this is intended. We provide a small, hand-mixed wax for owners who prefer to slow that process, and we offer free consultation if you wish to restore or re-patinate a piece in the future.
Repair & Restoration
Because every piece is handmade, every piece can be hand-repaired. Should a sculpture be damaged in transit, in renovation, or simply by the passage of years, the original artisan — or, where that is no longer possible, the next generation of the same family — will restore it in our atelier.
Resale & Re-homing
Owners who wish to part with a Xene piece are encouraged to return it to us first. We maintain a private waiting list of collectors and will broker a quiet, dignified resale. The dossier travels with the work, and the new owner is recorded.
Frequently Asked
Questions, answered plainly.
- Is every piece truly handmade?
- Yes — without exception. We do not cast, we do not stamp, and we do not use CNC, laser cutting or 3D printing at any stage of the work. Even the smallest decorative element is raised, chased, gilded or engraved by an artisan at the bench.
- How long does a commission take?
- A small piece — a calligraphic panel, a desk-scale animal study, an engraved silver tray — typically takes between four and twelve weeks. A monumental work such as a life-size lion or a three-metre tree of life can occupy the workshop for one to five years depending on its complexity and finish.
- Can I commission a piece that incorporates my family crest, name or calligraphy?
- Absolutely — this is among our most frequent commissions. Crests, monograms, dedications, verses of poetry and personal symbols can all be hand-engraved into the surface of your piece. We will share working drawings with you before any metal is touched.
- What does a piece cost?
- Smaller pieces begin at approximately $1,000. Mid-scale sculptures sit in the range of $10,000 to $50,000. Fully gilt monumental works can exceed $200,000. We provide a written estimate, in confidence, after our first conversation about your project.
- Do you ship internationally?
- Yes. We crate every piece by hand in our London atelier and arrange insured, white-glove delivery worldwide. For larger works we will travel with the piece personally and supervise its installation on site.
- Can I visit the workshop?
- We do not generally offer in-person viewings. The vast majority of our work is carried out by master artisans in Iran, with finishing and client liaison handled from London. We are happy to share detailed photographs, video walk-throughs, and provenance documentation for any piece or commission.
In Their Words
What collectors have said.
“A workshop that has refused, with quiet conviction, to let a single modern shortcut into the room.”
“The lion arrived in a wooden crate so beautifully made we kept it. The sculpture itself is, of course, beyond words.”
“Watching the engraving happen by hand is the closest thing to time travel I have experienced in a contemporary studio.”
Bespoke Commissions
Whatever lives in your imagination — our artists can make it real.
Family crests engraved in silver. A lion in solid copper for a private courtyard. A monumental tree of life in gilt steel for a hotel lobby. Personal symbols, calligraphy, dedications — everything is possible, and everything is made by hand.
Scale
From a few centimetres to three metres in height — desk pieces to monumental installations.
Time
From one month for smaller works to up to five years for the most intricate masterpieces.
Investment
Pieces begin at $1,000 and rise to $200,000 for fully gilt monumental works.
Stay Connected
Let’s work together.
Tell us about your project — a single object, a private collection, a public installation. We respond personally to every enquiry, usually within two business days.
- [email protected]
- Phone (UK)
- +44 161 262 0006