490 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



rations lie in an even surface. On this account it is also called 

 surface or smooth enamel, an expression which is employed by 

 the Russians especially for this kind of product. Another kind 

 of cell enamel is made in Moscow, and there only, viz. : — 



c. The so-called filigree enamel is called by the Russians Filo- 

 granuije enamel or Soskanju enamel, i.e. literally "enamel with 

 twisted thread." It differs from the smooth enamel in this, that 

 only the bottom of the cells is covered with the enamel colours 

 and the cloisons or cell walls stand out in relief 



2. Free enamel is laid on with the brush, not in cells but upon 

 the smooth metallic surface. It is distinguished as painted enamel 

 (email de peintre) or Limoges, after the city in which it was 

 principally employed in the 15th and i6th centuries with remark- 

 able effect, and as translucent (email translucide), raised or high 

 enamel (opera di basso rilievo). The ornamentation, which is 

 formed by the embossing and cutting of the metal foundation 

 itself, or by means of a putty in surface relief, is painted with 

 transparent enamel colours, so that the lustrous metallic ground- 

 work is seen through the crust of enamel. 



The origin of flat enamel, with which we have principally to do, 

 belongs to a period before the Christian era. The old Egyptians 

 filled gold cells with polished costly stones or glass, and I saw in 

 1878, in the Musee de Cluny at Paris, a piece of bronze bearing the 

 number 3510 (a clasp) which was similarly treated. It was about 

 fiye or six centimeters long and broad, with dice-shaped hollows 

 filled out with polished coloured stones. Whether it was really 

 of Celtic origin, as the label stated, or was made rather by the- 

 Romans, is of no consequence here. It is certain that the next 

 step was to fill these cells with enamel colours instead of coloured 

 stones or pieces of glass. 



Articles decorated with Cloisonne enamel in ancient times are 

 infrequent and usually small. The groundwork was almost always 

 of embossed gold or silver. The cells were small strips of gold 

 soldered in. Pit enamel soon followed. In the flourishing period 

 of the Eastern Empire, especially at the time of Justinian, who was 

 able to use his great wealth to gratify his taste for magnificence in 

 churches and castles, weapons and armours, Byzantine enamel (cell 

 and pit enamel) was brought to its highest development in Con- 

 stantinople. It is not known whether the Byzantines discovered 

 the art or learned it from the orientals ; the assumption that it 

 came from the Chinese, on the other hand, is entirely unfounded 

 and erroneous. It gained entrance to Western Europe and firm 

 foundation undoubtedly by means of the crusades. Its greatest 

 display was in the 13th and 14th centuries, as can be readily 

 seen by its products in the art collections of many old Catholic 

 churches, for example, in the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle. De- 

 coration with precious stones, some of which stand out above the 

 enamel, was combined with the electrum, as enamel was called 



