Chartier, Petitot, and Bordier were three other noted miniature painters on enamel. The latter two worked in conjunction, and lived for some years in England, until the death of Charles I., when they returned to the Court of Louis XIV., and there painted the portraits in miniature of the principal people of the time.
The art of enamelling was carried on in Spain, in Italy, and in some parts of Germany during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but not to the same extent as in France. Such articles as crosses, crucifixes, rosaries, pendants, ewers, medallions, perfume bottles, rings, badges, small panels with figure subjects, and numerous small objects, particularly in jewellery, were made in enamels in these centuries throughout Europe.
Fig. 106.—Battersea Enamel. (S.K.M.)
In the seventeenth century, in England, a good deal of enamelling was done at Battersea, and at Bilston in Staffordshire. A kind of coarse enamel was made in England at that time on cast iron and on brass. The cavities were cast to receive the enamel. There are some candlesticks and fire-dogs in existence that are made in this way.
Stephen T. Janssen had his enamel works at York House, Battersea, in the years 1750-5. After this time the English practice of enamel-making died out. Kensington and the British Museums contain many specimens of Battersea enamel (Fig. 106). Snuff and tobacco boxes, scent-bottles, candlesticks, small dishes, crests, labels of wine-bottles, and miniatures are the principal articles of Battersea enamel. The decorations are chiefly small flowers and ornament on light-coloured or white grounds enclosing pastoral subjects. Some have prints of calendars, and other black and white subjects, printed by transferring. In the British Museum there are two large oval medallions with the portraits of George III. and Queen Charlotte, painted by the English enameller W. H. Craft.
Enamels of the Countries of the East.
China, India, and Persia have been famed from early times for their exquisite productions in enamels. Japan also has made, and continues to make, enamels of great beauty. The older or Cloisonné method is mostly in favour with the natives of the East, and very little Champlevé work is executed. Although enamelling is an old art in China, yet Chinese enamels are rare that have been executed before the fifteenth century. In the Ming dynasty, under the Emperor King-tai (1450-7), enamel working was in its highest state of excellence.
The designs on the enamelled vases are pretty much the same as on all their other works, such as textiles, embroideries, and porcelain. In fact, a Chinese enamelled vase is as a rule very similar in shape, colour, and decoration to a porcelain one of the same country, and sometimes the likeness is so great as to demand a close inspection to determine which is enamel and which porcelain.
The Chinese used as a rule light colours in their enamel grounds: light turquoise blue, light olive green, or a bright yellow ground; the latter colour was mostly used in the painted enamels of the Thsing dynasty, yellow being the national colour of this dynasty. The general type of the design is made up of such things as a very crooked tree or branch, decorated with large clusters of flowers and foliage, slightly conventional in drawing; sometimes with birds and butterflies, or with dragons; some vases have one large dragon occupying the greater part of the field.