ENAMELS AND ENAMEL- WORK. 



ENCAMPMENT. 



874 



hair pencil. The heat of an oven is finally employed to fuse it, and 

 the enamel-paint becomes firmly incorporated with the enamel-ground. 

 The difficulty of preparing the plates for enamel painting, and more 

 especially the care and caution required in burning in the colours, with 

 the very great risk attending the operation, had, till recent times, 

 restricted the ordinary size of fluxed plates, and consequently of enamel 

 paintings, to five or six inches ; and French writers think it would be 

 little short of madness to attempt such works on a larger scale. But 

 English artists have of late years so far exceeded these limits, that it 

 would be absurd to hazard any dogmatic opinion respecting the possible 

 e,xtent to which they may go. The late Mr. Horace Hone was, we 

 believe, the first who ventured much to exceed the usual size ; he 

 produced a beautiful whole length portrait of a lady, which was about 

 twelve inches high, and broad in proportion. But this was far exceeded 

 by the late Mr. H. P. Bone, whose copy from the famous picture of 

 Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian, in the National Gallery, measures 18 

 inches by 16J. Mr. Bowles became the purchaser of this enamel for 

 the enormous sum of 2200 guineas. The same artist had also in the 

 exhibition of the Royal Academy, in 1837, a copy of the Virgin and 

 Child, by Vandyke, of still larger dimensions. Mr. Charles Nurse pro- 

 duced a copy in enamel of a Holy Family after Parmigiano, measuring 

 204 inches by 15|; George IV. purchased this for 1500 guineas. 



When we contemplate such works finished in the most exquisite 

 manner, we cannot but admire the courage of the artist in undertaking 

 them. The brilliancy and permanency of the colours are indeed a great 

 temptation and an ample reward for success. But chances of failure 

 are great, and increase with the size of the work, which is not safe till 

 it has undergone the operation of being exposed to the fire for the last 

 time. Indeed the whole process from the very outset requires in every 

 stage the utmost care and attention, and a degree of skill in the 

 management which only long practice can give. No fault in the design 

 can be corrected ; the artist's conception must be traced in the first 

 instance with perfect accuracy ; the fire may destroy the work, but 

 what it fixes, whether good or bad, is unalterable. 



3. Enamelled Ware. A process is now extensively practised of enam- 

 melling the interior of cast-iron and other hollow articles, such as 

 saucepans and other culinary and domestic utensils. The superior 

 cleanliness of such articles, and the security wtych they afford against 

 any metallic taint, render them peculiarly valuable for some delicate 

 operations in cookery and confectionary, and for the preparing of phar- 

 maceutical decoctions, extracts, &c. A patent was obtained in 1799 

 for two modes of performing this process, by Dr. Hickling ; but though 

 the manufacture of enamelled wares was carried on for some time 

 tinder this patent, it was at length given up, for want of due encourage- 

 ment. A second process was patented by Messrs. Thomas and Charles 

 Clarke, in 1839, for applying an enamel lining less liable to crack or 

 split off with the action of fire than that commonly used. According 

 to their specification the vessels are to be first thoroughly cleansed by 

 exposing them for three or four hours to the action of dilute sulphuric 

 acid, and then boiling them for a short time in pure water. The first 

 enamel composition is then applied. It consists of 100 Ibs. of calcined 

 ground flints, and 50 Ibs. of borax, also calcined, and finely ground 

 with the flint ; this mixture is fused and gradually cooled, after which 

 it i ground in water with the addition of one-eighth of its weight of 

 potter's clay, until the mixture forms a mass of a pasty consistence. 

 This coat is set by placing the vessel in a warm room, after which, 

 while it is yet moist, the second or glazing composition is sifted finely 

 and evenly over it in the form of a dry powder. This glazing compo- 

 sition consists of 125 Ibs. of white glass (without lead), 25 Ibs. of borax, 

 and 20 Ibs. of soda (crystals), all pulverised together, vitrified by fusion, 

 ground, cooled in water, and dried. To 45 Ibs. of this mixture 1 Ib. of 

 soda is added ; the whole being then mixed together in hot water, and 

 when dry, pounded to prepare it for sifting on the vessel as above 

 stated. The vessel is then dried in a stove at a temperature of 

 212* Fahr., and subsequently heated gradually in a kiln or muffle 

 resembling that used for glazing china, until the glaze is fused or 

 fluxed. Sometimes the glaze-powder is again dusted over the fused 

 glaze, and fluxed a second time in the kiln. Some other manufacturers, 

 having produced enamelled ware of excellent quality, were sued by 

 the Messrs. Clarke for an invasion of their patent rights; but the 

 patentees were non-suited in the Court of Exchequer. Indeed, the 

 formulas by which a good enamel may be compounded are almost 

 innumerable, so tliat a patent for such a purpose seems to be untenable, 

 or at least easily evaded. Many enamels used for this purpose possess 

 deleterious properties, owing to the presence of lead, which was found 

 in some of the earlier wares made under Clarke's patent, before the use 

 of glass containing lead was avoided ; but the best manufacturers now 

 limit themselves to the employment of harmless ingredients. 



However the process may be varied in detail, the general principle 

 is always the same, namely, that of applying a vitreous glaze, either 

 transparent like glass or opaque like enamel, and either white or 

 coloured, to the surface of a piece of metal very carefully cleansed and 

 prepared, and afterwards uniting the two firmly by fusing the glaze in 

 a kiln. The culinary and other vessels of enamelled ware are now 

 becoming an important branch of manufacture at Birmingham and 

 Wolverhampton. In the Official Report prepared by direction of the 

 Board of Trade concerning manufactures in metal sent to the Paris 

 Exhibition in 1855, the following observations occur : " In the more 



useful cast-iron articles, such as kitchen utensils, especially enamelled 

 hollow ware, the exhibits of Austria and Prussia presented features 

 which evidenced a great improvement during the last three or four 

 years ; but it is quite clear that exhibitors of these useful articles have 

 been fully alive to the importance of improvement ; and two leading 

 representatives of this branch of industry, Messrs. Clarke of Wolver- 

 hampton and Messrs. Kenrick of West Bromwich, certainly more than 

 sustained their position, not only by the character of the work, but 

 also by the variety of the utensils to which they had succeeded in 

 applying the process. The Birmingham productions of the Patent 

 Enamel Company under Paris's patent were not represented in the 

 Exposition. These consist of a great variety of utensils stamped in 

 sheet iron for culinary and other purposes, the surfaces of which are 

 covered both inside and outside with a glass enamel. Though origi- 

 nally a French invention, it is now likely to form an important feature 

 in British manufactures, since it can be applied to many articles made 

 in wrought iron which require to be protected from the atmosphere 

 or the action of water. Plates, dishes, &c., produced by this process for 

 table use are susceptible of any amount of decoration, in the manner 

 and by the methods applicable to ordinary earthenware or porcelain, 

 and are peculiarly suitable for ship purposes from their lightness and 

 non-liability to fracture. In many decorative purposes this method of 

 enamelling on sheet iron is likely, under proper direction, to become of 

 great value and importance." 



Enamelling hollow iron ware is the principal but not the only appli- 

 cation of the art to useful purposes. The enamel for watch-dial faces, 

 adverted to in an earlier paragraph, is often distinguished as gloss 

 enamel. It derives its whiteness, not from tin and antimony, like 

 artists' enamel, but from arsenic ; the substance thus produced is very 

 glassy, brittle, easily scratched, readily fusible, and very white. It is 

 not at all suited for coating culinary vessels, but renders excellent 

 service for watch- and clock-dials, and ornaments for the mantel-piece 

 or the toilet-table. In the enamelling of dials, the enamel is first 

 broken into small pieces with a hammer, and then pounded with an 

 agate pestle and mortar. A plate of copper is prepared of the proper 

 size and shape ; the enamel-powder is spread evenly upon it ; the plate 

 is exposed to heat, and the enamel adheres firmly to the metal. For 

 the best kinds of dial-faces a second coating of enamel is laid over the 

 first. The figures or numerals which belong to a watch or dial are 

 painted with a verifiable colour, somewhat in the same way as artistic 

 enamel-painting, after which the heat of a kiln, melting the colour and 

 softening the enamel, incorporate the two into one body. 



We may advert in this place, as belonging quite as much to the 

 enamelling art as to that of earthenware or porcelain, to the Baron du 

 Tremblay's (mail ombrant, or shaded enamel, a production femarkable 

 alike for the ingenious way in which it is wrought and for the pleasing 

 appearance which it is said to present. It consists in flooding coloured 

 but transparent glazes over designs stamped in the body of earthenware. 

 A plain surface is thus produced, in which the cavities of the stamped 

 design appear as shadows of various depths, the parts in highest relief 

 coming nearest the surface of the glaze, and thus leaving the effect of 

 the lights of the picture. If taste be exercised in the selection of 

 the design, this art appears to be susceptible of many beautiful 

 modifications. 



ENCAMPMENT is the lodgment or station of an army, with its 

 artillery, baggage, and stores, when it has taken the field for the purpose 

 of a review, or of acting against an enemy. 



Under the word CAMP (ROMAN) there has been given an account 

 of the ancient castrametation ; and, till the employment of fire-arms in 

 war, it is probable that the manner of occupying ground for military 

 purposes which had been adopted by the Romans continued to be used 

 by the nations formed on the ruins of their empire, such alterations only 

 being made in the internal arrangements of the camp as were rendered 

 necessary by differences in the numerical strength of the principal 

 divisions of the troops. 



The camps of the Britons, and those of the Anglo-Saxons and Danes 

 in this country, seem to have been intrenched by breast-works made of 

 felled trees, or of earth and stones rudely heaped together. Concerning 

 the disposition of the troops within the inclosure, we only know that 

 the Saxons drew up their cavalry in one dense body surrounding the 

 standard, and that they placed the foot soldiers with their heavy battle- 

 axes in front. In a description of the camp formed by Edward II. 

 during his expedition to Scotland in 1301, is contained the first hint 

 we have of any regularity in the distribution of an English army while 

 in the field ; this amounts however to little more than that the ground 

 was marked out, and that to every one his proportion of the space was 

 assigned. Within the spaces tents of white or coloured linen were set 

 up, and huts were constructed, the latter probably for the private 

 soldiers. (Grose, ' Mil. Antiq.,' vol. ii., p. 205.) 



In former times both the English and French commanders of armies 

 appear to have fortified their encampments when they undertook the 

 siege of any place, particularly if it appeared likely to be of long dura- 

 tion ; and P. Daniel states, that when cannon were used, it was placed 

 for the protection of the army in large redoubts of wood or earth, 

 called Hastillet, constructed at intervals along the circumvallation. 

 The same author relates that the English, while they made war in 

 France, went by parties into the country, carrying with them strong 

 pallisades to form an intrenchment, behind which they were protected 



