Studio: international art (25.1902)

The Art of True Enamelling

gilding. An excellent
description of the gild-
ing processes may be
found in Spon's Encyclo-
paedia.

The design for champ-
leve' enamelling should be
done in a simple manner,
and with as few lines as
possible consistent with the
technical necessity of hold-
ing the enamel, and the
lines should be of such a
thickness as to be readily
seen. It is noticeable
that colours of medium
strength give greater
breadth than those which
are much lighter or darker
than the metal, and
„ that a certain degree

"THE KNIGHT-ERRANT" liV GILBERT HAYES 6

(See article on Gilbert Bayes) of hardness is overcome

by graduating the colour

lines and parts not covered with enamel receive a spaces, and also by engraving a pattern on the
fine deposit of gold. The gold may be afterwards metal surfaces left bare of enamel. It is by such
brightened or burnished. It is often the unhappy means that a certain hardness and tightness,
experience of all enamellers who have entrusted observed in almost all modern objects of this kind,
their work to gilders to receive it back from them is avoided in the beautiful old work,
either wholly or partially
destroyed. The principal
causes—apart from those
due to carelessness—are
several. One is that,
in the case of mercury-
gilding, the heat used to
draw off the mercury has
been too suddenly ap-
plied ; or it may be that
the acid employed in
cleansing the metal has
been allowed to undercut
the enamel, so that any
very slight friction would
peel the enamel off at
the parts thus undercut.
The same cause in the
process of electro-gilding
would allow the gold to
be deposited underneath
the enamel, thereby lift-
ing off the enamel
in flakes. ♦ Therefore, it
would be wise for an

PEGASUS BY GILBERT BAYES

enameller to do his Own (See article on Gilbert Bayes)

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