CLOISONNE AND CHAMP-LEVE. 
T is well known that the art of enamel- 
~ w ( p 
ling on metal is of great antiquity, 
and though, until lately, it has never 
obtained any great development with 
Western nations, it has always been 
cultivated in the East. 
For instance, the Chinese and 
Japanese still practise the art, though 
the latter seem to have lost the secret 
of the delicate beauty for which 
1f their enamels of two or three hundred 
years back are farnous. 
Elkington & Co. have for some time past de- 
voted their attention to this subject, which offered an 
immense field for productions in a medium almost 
imperishable and of great artistic beauty. As early 
as 1862, in the London Exhibition, their Champ- 
Leve Enamels excited considerable attention and 
admiration ; but, not satisfied with their success in 
a dass of work which when compared to the 
Cloisonne' Enamel is easy, they determined, if 
possible, to rival the old Japanese artists ; thus, 
by a careful analysis of their colours and mode of 
working, they have arrived at a result highly satis- 
factory to themselves, and of which the public 
tnay judge by visiting their cases in the present 
Exhibition. 
A few descriptive remarks on the manufacture 
of enamels may perhaps prove interesting. 
Enamels generally may be divided into two 
great classes, the Cloisonnti and the Champ-Leve. 
Both terms being borrowed from the French, may 
be literally translated by the word panelled (cloi- 
sonn^) and raised field (champ-levd) ; these terms 
designating not inaptly the processes employed in 
preparing the metal for the reception of the colours 
or enamel proper. The Cloisonne process is by 
4. 
far the most prized, requiring as it does greater 
skill and, above all, greater patience on the part 
of the artist producer. Take a dish, for instance, 
which is to be enamelled by this method. First of 
all the pattem—flowers, birds, &c.—is traced very 
finely on the surface of the metal, very thin gold or 
other wire is then bent by the hand with delicately 
made tweezers exactly into the shapes of the Orna 
ments traced on the dish; the wire thus shaped is 
now soldered on to the dish so as to follow out 
the design in all its intricacy, this requiring the 
greatest delicacy of touch, for on the accuracy of 
these lines of wire depends the success of the 
pattern. The dish is now ready for the enamel, 
which will have to occupy all the little spaces par- 
titioned off by means of the wire. The colours, 
chemically blended, are now made into a thin 
paste and disposed in their several cells or beds, 
after which the dish is subjected to very great 
heat in an oven used for the purpose until the 
colours are completely fused, when it is removed 
and allowed to cool, this part of the process being 
repeated again and again, for many meltings are 
required before the cells or beds are quite filled. 
When this result has been obtained, the process is 
completed by the whole being stoned down, in 
Order to obtain a perfectly level surface. 
In the Champ-Leve mode of working, the wire 
is entirely dispensed with, the cells for the recep 
tion of the enamel being cut out of the metal 
by the graving tool, and then dealt with as for 
Cloisonne. 
Annexed are two pages illustrative of both kinds 
of enamelling—the one being a selection by the 
Champ-Leve, the other by the Cloisonnd processes. 
The designs are by various artists on the staff of 
the firm.