34 
HOUSE & GARDEN 
amel, the rich, 
soft colors of the 
early Chinese 
work help to dis¬ 
tinguish it. This 
is especially true 
of the varied and 
beautiful blues 
employed by the 
Chinese enamel - 
lers. Occasionally 
the Chinese em¬ 
ployed both cloi¬ 
sonne and cham- 
pleve on the same 
piece, as certain 
objects in enamel 
of the Ch’ien 
Lung period 
(1723-1795) will 
show. In the gen¬ 
uine old pieces it 
often happens 
that corrosion has 
made its appear¬ 
ance around the 
cloisons. While 
the early history 
of Chinese cloi¬ 
sonne is lost to us 
we know it to 
have been in favor in the early 15th Cen¬ 
tury as a vase of the King Tai period (1450- 
1457), in the Victoria and Albert Museum, 
South Kensington, attests. Not only for its 
blues is Chinese cloisonne noted, but it pos¬ 
sesses a characteristic red, lilac, violet, pink, 
orange and green as well. Of Chinese 
enamel colors Lewis F. Day wrote: “The 
palette of the Chinese was practically the 
mediaeval one; and they, too, made lavish 
use of lapis and turquoise blues. They had 
two opaque reds—the one sealing-wax col¬ 
or, the other more like the potter’s opaque 
variety of so-called ' sang-de-boeuf! Their 
lemon yellow, green and yellow green were 
those of the European enamellers. The 
mauve tint occurring in their work may be 
The two smaller bowls are early Japanese cloisonne enamel; the larger a Chinese cloisonne 
bowl of the Ch’ien Lung period. From the collection of Dr. Alfred Owre 
Inside decorations of an early 
Japanese cloisonne enamel bowl 
formerly in the possession of the 
late Emperor of Japan 
silver as to gold 
or copper. Then 
there is the dis¬ 
tinctive polish of 
the earlier enam¬ 
els. These were 
polished by hand, 
in consequence of 
which their sur- 
faces did not 
present the mir¬ 
ror - like surface 
which modern 
contempor ary 
cloisonne enamels 
exhibit. The sur¬ 
face of the old 
pieces shows 
more like that of 
an eggshell. 
Again, few of the 
antique cloisonne 
enamels show any 
transparency, a 
fact probably due 
to the oxide of tin 
in the solder. In 
recent work the 
cloisons have, in 
many instances, 
been fastened to 
the metal bases by means of a paste instead 
of by the soldering method, surely a shifty 
mode, and one marking the decline of the 
true excellence of the ancient art. 
In “From Sea to Sea” Rudyard Kipling 
gives us a careful account of the art of 
enamelling as he saw it practiced by the 
minakari, or enamellers of Kioto. This the 
reader will find of great interest, and while 
the work of the modern Japanese crafts¬ 
man of some thirty years ago was that 
which Kipling describes, the process was 
the same as that practiced not only in China 
but, in essentials, everywhere that cloisonne 
enamel has been made and as it is practiced 
to-day. The collector will do well to turn 
(Continued on page 58) 
Chinese cloisonne enamel vase, cov¬ 
ered. Ch’ien Lung period. From the 
collection of Dr. Alfred Owre 
An exterior view of the same bowl, 
now owned by Dr. Alfred Owre 
due to cobalt and a little manganese; but 
the rose-pink is, on the face of it, akin to 
that in porcelain of the ‘famille rose,’ that 
is to say, a gold color. Black and white 
they have, of course; but their white is at 
the best not very pure, and in early work 
is pitted with air-holes.' 
Advice for Collectors 
The collector will understand from this 
at once how necessary it is for him to 
give careful attention to this matter of 
color in determining the value of any early 
enamels. He should concern himself, too, 
with the matter of the metals employed by 
the cloisonne workers. Where gold was 
used it had to be fine gold, as alloys would 
not withstand the heat of the enameller’s 
furnace. Enamel does not hold so well to 
Tall Chinese cloisonne enamel vase 
of the Ch’ien Lung period. From the 
collection of Dr. Alfred Owre 
