June, i p i 6 
25 
“The Flight into Egypt,” a 
Limoges enamel medallion 
by Pierre Reymond 
Enamel medallion of the 
Assumption by Jean Peni- 
caud II, 16th Century 
Limoges enamel oval placque, “The Portrait of a 
Lady,” by Leonard Limousin, first half of the 
16 th Century. This and the others on the top 
of this page are from the Morgan Collection 
EUROPEAN ENAMELS 
GARDNER TEALL 
A Limoges enamel of the 
early 16th Century; “me 
confido” — sic! 
St. John holding a scroll, a 
Limoges medallion by Jean 
Penicaud II 
Readers who are interested in enamels or in any branch of collecting will find The 
Collector’s Department of value. In that service questions are ansivered authoritatively. 
There is no charge. Address The Collector’s Department, House & Garden, 440 Fourth 
Avenue, New York 
T HE subject of the oriental enamels of 
China and Japan, which was dis¬ 
cussed in the January number of House 
& Garden, awakened so much interest 
among readers that the writer believes 
there will be as many who will care to study 
the enamels of European fabrication, par¬ 
ticularly those objects familiarly known as 
Portrait of Antoine de Bourbon, King of 
Navarre, Limoges enamel. From the col¬ 
lection of the Due d’Amualle 
Limoges enamels, but more properly to be 
called painted enamels to distinguish them 
from the cloisonne and the champleve 
enamels. It may be well to indicate here 
the characteristics of the several groups. 
The Various Groups 
Cloisonne. —As early as the time of the 
ancients it was found that in order to pre¬ 
vent the running together of molten glass 
enamels, little boundaries of metal wire 
could be devised for soldering on to the 
metal base to mark the divisions of the 
pattern, or merely to bound areas, thus 
forming a number of diminutive shallow 
pans into which the melted flux expanded 
and cooled, and when polished revealed a 
surface level with the height of these wire 
cloisons, giving them the appearance of be¬ 
ing metal wires that had been imbedded 
in the glass. Gold being neutral to every 
known color is the harmonizer paramount, 
and thus when gold cloisons were used, 
the various colors were knit together into 
esthetically pleasing surfaces. The little 
metal threads running through modern Jap¬ 
anese enamels are such cloisons. Cloisonne 
enamel is the earliest sort of true enamel 
known to us. It was the favorite Byzan¬ 
tine process, and also that of the Greeks, 
Anglo-Saxons, Chinese, and later of the 
Japanese and of the Russians. 
Relief Cloisonne is where the enamel 
either is below or above the tops of the 
cloisons, or where only certain cloisons en¬ 
close enamel, or a combination of the three 
sorts, giving to the surface of an object 
completed in this manner an interesting 
uneven ground of smooth but unpolished 
enamel. The cloisons of much of this 
work, especially Hungarian and Russian, 
are of filigree wire, or twisted wire in¬ 
stead of flat wire such as was used for this 
purpose by Byzantine craftsmen. 
Painted enamel on copper. Jaques Oaliot 
de Genouilhac, Grand Master of Artillery 
to Francis I. By Leonard Limousin 
