Page 81 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 2 The Production of Enamelled Porcelain and Knowledge Transfer

2.3.3. Manufacture Process of Enamelled Porcelain

Making Enamel Colours

Enamels are either non-transparent or semi-transparent in appearance. Enamel is a

comparatively soft glass, compounds of flint or sand, red lead or potash. The methods

of enamelling fall into distinct categories, with each type and subdivisions having

visual and technical differences. The main classifications of enamel objects are the

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inlaid and encrusted methods, the painted enamels and the industrial techniques.

Painting enamel on porcelain is a subdivision of painted enamels.

Painting enamel on copper was first known in Europe in fifteenth century

Limoges, and in the late seventeenth century, this was transferred to China via Jesuit

Missionaries in the Imperial Workshop. It was soon adapted in an innovative way by

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Chinese porcelain manufacturers, both in the Imperial Workshop and Jingdezhen.
Two types of enamel colours were used to produce painted enamels on metal or

porcelain body. Preparing enamel colours required special skills and techniques.

Woodrow Carpenter included the following information regarding the enamel

colour manufacture of modern enamels:

Enamels are glass. Like glass enamel is a fusion of silica, soda, lime, and

a small amount of borax. Though normally transparent, various amounts

of opacity can be produced by adding or growing crystals within the glass

25 For a general introduction of enamel works, see
https://www.britannica.com/art/enamelwork,accessed on 10 June, 2016.
26 Emily Curtis, Xu Xiaodong and Shi Jingfei’s works have proved that painted enamel was
transferred by European missionaries in the late 1680s.
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