Enamel : its History

(Extracted from a booklet resulting from the Emailleries Franck (or more exactly from a factory of hardware intended for emailleries.) The end of the text refers to an industrialist of Silesia: it is about the father of David Moll; then when the author speaks about the emaillery installed in the suburb of Charleroi (Gosselies), it is about the business of David Moll.

Art to cover metals by vitrified enamels goes back to old times. At all times, goals of esthetics, ornamentation and protection guided the men towards the search for solid, beautiful and inalterable coatings.

The history of the development of this art, which changed gradually until becoming industrial enamelling, remains of a considerable interest for any enameller.

Found objects, having resisted the insult of the years and having preserved all their initial beauty, affirm the resistance of glasses which, after centuries of experiments, are transformed into our modern enamels.

Scythes which very probably introduced this art in China by the Indies, practised already enamelling. Then the Egyptians, Phenicians and Assyriens maintained the tradition and became Masters in the application of enamels in jewellery. The Greeks, in many points pupils of the Egyptians, had many knowledge relating to the manufacture of coloured glasses. At the 5th century B.C., Democrite d' Abdere invented the art to imitate emerald. Colourless glass, extremely appreciated, is mentioned by the Roman histographe Pline, at the same time besides that other coloured glasses, whose hue was obtained with the same substances that those of which we serve ourselves today.

Already, between others, blue glass was obtained using cobalt, the red by addition of copper oxydule and the green by means of oxide of this same metal.

At the 13th century, the Eastern ones had acquired a great ability in art to manufacture objects raised by the application of coloured enamels. The enamellers of Djepour, of Lahore in Central India, Benares are regarded as most skilful; it is dificult in the other countries to compete with these cities for the enamelling of gold, the tone ruby, green emerald, blue sapphire and this, despite everything our modern technique. The old French enamellers, at the 16th century, however knew to obtain beautiful red hues, criterion of their value.

The enamel was then worked in Cologne. From Cologne, the secrecies of trade are brought to Limoges where at the beginning of the 15th century, were developed the "champlevés" and partitioned enamels. Until the 17th century, art to enamel continued to develop and certain goldsmiths and artists made themselves famous for his application to the field of the jewellery, the glassmaking and especially of the goldsmith nun.

In England, as from the 18th century, the enamels of art knew a certain prosperity and particularly in 1750, when an engraver of the name of S.F. Ravenet reproduced some paintings to enamel, by the method of the transfer to the carryforward. It was the origin of the miniature on enamel all colors. The manufacture of Battersea, which used this method, burned in 1756; it had been produced there 20.000 small marvelous pieces.

Towards this period, were six different classes of enamelling:

1. - 'Champlevés' enamels: enamelling of a surface of gold, silver or copper worked in hollow following a drawing. The hollows are filled with enamel and when two enamels appeared in a same hollow, a fine metal separation remained in order to prevent two enamels from mixing with fusion.

2. - Partitioned enamels: on copper or silver, gold surface, borders of the details are stopped by a partition made of a flat wire bent with the grip according to the drawing. The partitions thus delimit as many compartments filled with enamel in paste before cooking.

3. - The mixed enamels use the two processes, the notches made with the graver being always guilloched carefully to give adherence to the enamel and to vary the light effects.

4. - The translucent enamels have their origin and their improvement in Italy. They consist of transparent enamels applied to a metal beforehand engraved, guilloched, or engraved and almost always gilded; the drawing was raised by the variation of the lights obtained by the hollows, the bumps and engravings through enamel.
This process constitutes a first step of enamelling such as we consider it nowadays; it demonstrates that the enamel can melt on a metal part and adhere to its surface without suitable partitions or cavities.

5. - Painted metals, whose development counts two stages. In this category, painting is made directly on the surface of metal with pastes which take their color and their brightness by cooking. The first consists in cover the metal with very dark basic enamel to establish the shades and to work then with clear colors, often recorded by gilding. Then, second stage, metal was covered with a priming coat of white enamel and the colors were applied to the brush, producing effects similar to ordinary paintings.
This art reaches its perfection in Limoges at 16th and 17th centuries.

There is still a process where a thin gold sheet is applied to an enamel previously melted and is hot-welded there, then worked with the graver and finally the whole cooks last time, appears a drawing in the gold ink on coloured background. The Indian enamels of Pectabgolir are obtained by a similar process.

6. - The enamels of "spade-opening" (pique-ajour) are a combination of partitioned and translucent enamels. Divisions are obtained by thin metal tapes, without metalic support and thus have the appearance, when presenting them to the light, of stained glasses in miniature.

Thus in antiquity, with the Middle Ages and the beginning of the 19th century, enamelling was only employed with the ornamentation of the Art items. However since about fifty years and many vexations, enamelling became an industrial operation.

The tradition wants that it was the Bartelmes family from Bohemian which, in the 1830's, industrially enamelled the first household ustensils out of cast iron, thus giving them one finished interior similar to the porcelain. In Silesia, an industrialist and landowner also found the capability, about 1817, to enamel the cast iron.

Our country, Belgium, was one of the first where is established this new industry. Since 1838, a firm settled in the Suburb of Charleroi where close to this industrial center, it found the coal necessary to the heating of the furnaces and cast iron to be enamelled.

In 1841, this firm was already in a large expansion, the manufacture of enamelled cast iron having since the beginning a bright success. In Gosselies, in 1852, was established the enamelling of buckled steel sheet and this city became, the following years, the center of a prosperous industry, whose importance is undeniable and whose development was a great success.

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