Studio: international art (8.1896)

An Enameller and his IVork

made principally in Russia, Sweden, and Paris,
but they are almost invariably the work rather of a
chemist or an ingenious mechanic than of an artist.
The colours are of the brightest and crudest, and
in most cases the form is very poor. This remark
applies also to the enamel work of this country.
The artistic, the beautiful, the precious use of
enamel is nearly unknown, or at all events frequently
absent, whereas the mechanical and chemical use
of it is well understood and practised. There is no
sense of colour, although the material offers the
finest palette in the world to the artist. Instead,
we see slabs of emerald, ruby, and blue on an
engine-turned ground, worked in a poor design, in
effect like a painted photograph."

There can be no question that enamelling is the
fittest decoration for fine metal work. Being
vitrified it is permanent, and being lustrous and
translucent it gives a gein-like effect to the metal
work it adorns. It is a colour-art before all else,
but this does not prevent it affording ample scope
for the finest designing and drawing, as a glance
at the specimens of Mr. Fisher's work accompany-
ing these notes will show; but what the illustrations portrait in enamels by a. fisher
do not even suggest is the gem-like quality of the

enamels themselves. This could not be given of their transparence. No attempt to get the
even if chromo-lithography were employed, because quality of an ivory miniature should be made,

for a high finish of that
kind would tend to de-
stroy the brilliancy of the
enamels.

In Cellini's work, and
the jewellery of his day,
we see how the touching
up of the gold with coloured
enamels brought out the
forms and gave accent to
the design. Yet in modern
jewellery the weight of the
metal used and the value
of the gems alone give
value to our gauds. Their
worth as art is nil. Take
the girdle band of beaten
and chased steel with
panels in enamels illustrat-
ing the Rhine legends
made by Mr. Fisher for Mr.
Horniman. Here the pre-
ciousness was in the work
of the artist, and not in the
value of metal and cut gems.
the annunciation" in champleve enamel with gold background The jewellery designed by

by a. fisher Hans Holbein again is

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