About

This shop sells brass, kansa and copper objects for the mandir, the kitchen and the house. All of it is handmade in India, all of it is solid metal, and none of it is plated or lacquered.

Why the weight is on every page

Brass, kansa and copper are sold by weight at a bartan shop. The vessel goes on the scale, the grams are read out, and the price follows from the rate per kilo. None of that survives the move to a website, where a photograph of a small lamp and a photograph of a heavy one look the same size.

So we put the number back. Almost every product page prints the weight in grams, and it is the one claim on this site you can check yourself. Seven do not: the figure we hold for them is wrong, they are waiting to be weighed again, and until then those pages print nothing rather than a number you would catch. Put a piece on a kitchen scale the day it arrives and compare. A plated shell of the same size and shape weighs a fraction of it.

The three metals

Brass, called pital, is copper and zinc. It casts cleanly, takes engraving, and is the metal most of this catalogue is made from: lamps, thalis, kalash, bells, murtis, cookware and storage.

Kansa is copper and tin melted together, sold as bronze or bell metal in English. It is denser than brass, harder to raise into a shape, and it rings when you tap the rim. It goes into thalis, katoris and serving pieces.

Copper, or tamba, is the softest of the three and the one that changes colour fastest. Bottles, jugs, glasses and dispensers.

What we will not tell you

We do not print a dimension that has not been measured. Most of this catalogue has a weight and no height or diameter, so those fields are left out rather than estimated. If you need one, ask and we will measure the piece.

We do not name the town a piece was made in unless we can stand behind it, so every page says only that it is handmade in India.

We do not claim an approval or a standard we do not hold, a test we have not run, or a benefit we cannot show you. Where a metal is said to do something to your health, that claim is not on this site.

Where something is genuinely unknown, the page says so. Several product pages say the maker has not confirmed a detail yet. That is not an oversight; it is the alternative to making it up.

Handmade means uneven

Each piece is shaped and finished by hand, so hammer marks, engraving depth, weight and the darkness that settles in the recesses all shift a little from one to the next. Two pieces from the same order will not match exactly. Colour on a screen will not match the metal in daylight.

Unlacquered brass and copper react with air and with skin, so a piece in daily use dulls within weeks. Lemon and salt, or tamarind pulp, brings the shine back in about a minute. Leave it alone instead and the patina settles, which is also a fine answer.

Where we are

We operate from Guwahati, Assam, and everything ships from there. Contact.