Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/72

* ENAMEL. 56 seen to be an application made after the comple- tion of the body of the vase. On the other hand, when a Chinese kettle or jardinii re of thin metal is coated on both sides with a solid, opaque, uni- form coating, giving it a finished look somewhat, but not quite, like that of porcelain, and when this hard and glassy surface is painted with (lowers and the like, it is surface enamel of a kind very common in the Orient, though hardly used in European handiwork, except in connec- tion with Limoges enamel, as mentioned below. two methods of using the decorative qual- ity of enameling are then distinguished as (1) that which covers the whole surface, and (2) that which is so applied to another surface as to form with it a kind of mosaic pattern. Of the first, or surface-covered, kind, one vari- ety has been described above; another is that known as Limoges enamel. In this the enamel is applied to a plate of metal with the express purpose of affording a ground for painting, and ilir paintings are often of very elaborate char- acter. Thus, the work of the sixteenth century, in which are distinguished the names of Peni- caud, Jean Courteys, and Leonard Limousin, is as for the use of completely developed paint- iln figure, treated, of course, decorativcly ■ — that is to say, without shadows and with the high light- often touched with gold, but with the figures completely modeled and the story com- pletely told. At a later time these proper limita- tions of the art disappear, and the eighteenth- century Limoges enamel resembles very closely a painting on paper or vellum, the slight irregu- urface and the slightly different gloss being tl distinctions. The tendency of the time was away from brilliant coloring, and much of the later Limoges enamel was painted in monochrome. That enamel which forma a saic pattern relieved upon the background of the original sub- tanci ma j be on glass, as stated above, and then iss i- usually translucent, and the pattern, era! colors, with gold, is in opaque body and in slight relief upon it. When applied to ceramic ware, as Chinese porcelain, it i- usu- ally combined with blue under-glaze painting, and i- hi-t in tin i il color effect. When it is applied to metal tlii- i- done according to one of two methods the Cloisonne and the Champ- levfi methods. Cloisonne work is thai which is done by building up upon the metal surface very small pa rtition iding up the field, opper, into lit t |e compart men! ; each of partments to be filled with enamel. I in" i di di i' i rigrai ing out olid -hi face, so as to leave littli p hollows, which art to be filled with enamel. In either i metal I i n pace epa i in another. usual to in ind the hard finished enamel rfao ind 1 he tnel al Bur '., polishei Bui in Orii her and more with the little compartments or hollow only in pa ruble tlivei I hi I i | ■ i . oral ive w iili only mi nut i
 * brown

ENAMELED CLOTH. spots on the blue, to give its color some addi- tional vivacity. Each compartment may be of solid, uniform ebler, or may itself contain a gradation, as of red passing slowly into white. The finest in color are Chinese, of the sixteenth or seventeenth century of our era. Very recent Japanese pieces show the partitions reduced al- most to nothing — very slender and of no sepa- rate effect, the color masses of the enamel seem- ing to touch; whereas in old Chinese work they might be one-fortieth of an inch wide and pre- sent even broader surfaces where several strips met and were secured together. In Europe, cloisonne enamel was rather com- mon among the Gauls of pre-Roman and Roman times, and was used in decorative Church plate, in metal parts of costume, as buckles and clasps, and even in large shrines and altarpieces down to the thirteenth century. It has not been used since the Middle -Ages, except in recent experi- Champleve enamel also was in use in Europe, especially in the dominions of the Eastern Em- pire. Sometimes both processes are employed in making the same piece — as in the magnificent Soltikoff Ghasse in the South Kensington Mu- seum. The famous Pala d'Oro, the altarpiece of Saint Mark's Church in Venice, is an immense frame, nearly 7 feet high and 12 feet long, di- vided into about eighty compartments, of different forms and sizes, and each one filled with a single figure or a figure subject, the whole of silver gilt and of gold, in proportions which cannot be ascertained, and adorned everywhere with enam- eling. This is usually champleve. work of great fineness. This piece is generally admitted to be of the tenth century; and of the same epoch are the finest of 1 ho many Byzantine book-covers which exist in the treasures of some Italian < hurches and in private collections. A school of enamelers existed in Germany in the tenth and eleventh centuries, and in France until a still later period : but the splendid pieces still existing. Buch as the "Shrine of the Three Kings." in Cologne Cathedral, and the plaques of about 1250 preserved in Ihe Ahhey of Saint Denis, show a use of ehamplevS enamel with but little of the othei variety. In ver I I in times the decorative use of enameling is chiefly in connection with jewelry; hut translucent enamel is used on a few decora- tive boxes, statuettes, and the like. Bibliogbapiiy. Gardner, Enamels and F.nam- i [London, 1890-91); Randau, Die Fabrika- der Emaille und das Emailliren (Vienna, ng i London. 1901); Cunynghame, Theory and Practice of irt-Enameling Upon Metals I on, ion. 1899), a practical treatise likely to be n " ii ' to beginners; Davenport, Niello Mom 1899 1900) ; the Burlington Fine Club's Catalogue of a Collection of Euro- el (London, 1897), with a sagacious and critical introductory essay by Alfred llig- i in- al o the excellent put South Kensington Museum Cata- and Silversmith's Work (London, 1878). See also the articles dealing with the diffi n of ceri ■ ware, as Porce- lain; I'm 1 1 RY. ENAMELED CLOTH. mat. rial used as ■ in in al. in" 1 1 a veling hags,
 * Brown, Handbook on Japanning and En-