Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 2.djvu/182

158 The metals capable of being employed as a ground for enamel are gold, silver, and copper, brass being of too fusible a quality. No course of experiments has hitherto made known the substances of which ancient enamels were composed, or the proportions in which they were employed: a few ancient recipes for compounding enamel have been discovered, and one of the most interesting is given as an appendix to this notice. It may here suffice generally to state that the colourless paste, which forms the base, consists of oxides of lead and tin, fused with silex, in certain quantities, the opaque qualities being given by the oxide of tin, whilst various colours are produced by the addition of other metallic oxides; thus from copper green is obtained, red from gold or iron, and blue from cobalt. The use of this last mineral, and the exquisite colour produced from it, seem to predominate to a remarkable extent in the earlier enamels; the field of which is almost invariably enriched with the brilliant hue of the substance called smalt, a word which appears to give the clue to the derivation of the term Enamel.

There can be little doubt that the ornament called in Italy smaltum, smaldum, and esmalctum, was enamel. It is very frequently mentioned in lists of the rich benefactions of the Popes, as early as the seventh and eighth centuries, given by Anastasius: as likewise in the Chronicle of Casino, printed by Muratori, in which may be found a very curious account of the golden tabula or altar-front set with smalta, and sacred ornaments of metal enriched with superficial colours, and figures, described as productions of Greek art, procured from Constantinople about A.D. 1058. In Prance it was termed esmail, in England amell, emal, esmal, or enamel, and in Germany Schmelze. Menage, Skinner, and Wachter seem to agree that the derivation of these terms is to be sought in the German schmelzen, to melt. The more remote origin of the word must be left to the research of the etymologist, who will not fail to institute a comparison with the Greek, to melt, the maltha described by Pliny, and the Hebrew תשמל, hasmal , translated by St. Jerom electrum, and by some interpreted as implying enamel.