Vienna Exhibition 1873
Group VII.

Annexed are two pages illustrative of both kinds of enamelling—the one being a sélection by the Champ-Levé, the other by the Cloisonné processes. The designs are by various artists on the staff of the firm. CLOISONNE AND CHAMP-LEVE is well known that the art of enamel- ling on metal is of great antiquity, and though, until lately, it has never obtained any great development with Western nations, it has always been / cultivated in the East. For instance, the Chinese and Japanese still practise the art, though the latter seem to have lost the secret of the delicate beauty for which their enamels of two or three hundred years back are famous. Elkington & Co. have for some time past de- voted their attention to this subject, which offered an immense field for productions in a medium almost imperishable and of great artistic beauty. As early as 1862, in the London Exhibition, their Champ- Levé Enamels excited considérable attention and admiration ; but, not satisfied with their success in a dass of work which when compared to the Cloisonné Enamel is easy, they determined, if possible, to rival the old Japanese artists ; thus, by a careful analysis of their colours and mode of working, they have arrived at a result highly satis- factory to themselves, and of which the public may judge by visiting their cases in the present Exhibition. A few descriptive remarks on the manufacture of enamels may perhaps prove interesting. Enamels generally may be divided into two great classes, the Cloisonné and the Champ-Levé. Both terms being borrowed from the Erench, may be literally translated by the word panelled (cloi- sonné) and raised field (champ-levé) ; these terms designating not inaptly the processes employed in preparing the metal for the reception of the colours or enamel proper. The Cloisonné process is by In the Champ-Levé mode of working, the wire is entirely dispensed with, the cells for the recep- tion of the enamel being cut out of the metal by the graving tool, and then dealt with as for Cloisonné. far the most prized, requiring as it does greater skill and, above all, greater patience on the part of the artist producer. Take a dish, for instance, which is to be enamelled by this method. First of all the pattern —Howers, birds, &c.—is traced very finely on the surface of the metal, very thin gold or other wire is then bent by the hand with delicately made tweezers exactly into the shapes of the orna- ments traced on the dish ; the wire thus shaped is now soldered on to the dish so as to follow out the design in all its intricacy, this requiring the greatest delicacy of touch, for on the aceuracy of these lines of wire depends the success of the pattein. The dish is now ready for the enamel, which will have to occupy al1 the little spaces par- titioned off by means of the wire. The colours, chemically blended, are now made into a thin paste and disposed in their several cells or beds, after which the dish is subjected to very great heat in an oven used for the purpose until the colours are completely fused, when it is removed and allowed to cool, this part of the process being repeated again and again, for many meltings are required before the cells or beds are quite filled. When this result has been obtained, the process is completed by the whole being stoned down, in order to obtain a perfectly level surface.