Interesting Bowl

I found this unusual bowl on Friday. It appears to be copper covered in another metal. It measures approximately 12" x 12". Its repousse and chased with 3 portraits engraved into it. If anyone has some info that would be great.

 

Looks like it was "tinned",I don't see repousse the inside is too dark.The design works seems to all be chased from what I can see.

 

It's difficult to see (even in person, much less in a picture) but the diamond shaped patterns, excluding the portrait panels, appear to have been worked from the inside while all of the finer details are chased.

 

Nice bowl, Christopher. It is Persian/Iranian tinned copper.
Chased, as Holly said, I can't really see repoussé. Could it be that the chasing simply pushed the copper in a bit, so that the panels appear to be repoussé?

I'd say late Qajar dynasty, first quarter of the 20th century. You can see that is in the same style as the one Hunting posted, but not the same quality. Most of these were made for the tourist trade.

The Persians started to tin copper instead of silverplating it in the 19th century, due to a shortage of silver. The early tinned copper pieces were of the same artistic quality as the silver and silverplate ones, but Persian art started to decline at the end of the 19th century. Quality picked up again in the 1960s-70s, and they are still making good 'stuff'.