Page 247 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

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CHAPTER X.

Enamels : Cloisonne, Champleve and Painted.
Enamelling has been described by enthusiastic admirers, Sir
George Birdvvood, for instance, in his excellent handbook of the
Industrial Arts of India, as the " master art craft of the world." An
enamel may be best defined for the purposes of this chapter as a
vitreous glaze, or combination of vitreous glazes, fused to a metallic
surface. When enamelling is artistically employed it is usual to
"
speak of the finished works of art as enamels," and this usage is
followed here.
The art of enamelling seems to have been invented at a very remote
date in Western Asia, and to have penetrated to Europe, as far
west even as Ireland, in the early centuries of the Christian era,
but there is no evidence of its having travelled eastwards to China
till much later. The Chinese themselves do not claim the in-
dependent invention of the art, which they trace back to Con-
stantinople, while they generally ascribe its introduction into their
own country to the Arabs as intermediaries. The Ko ku yao lun, a
well-known book on antiquities, published in 1387, says in the second
edition, which was issued in 1459, under the heading of TaShih Yao,
or " Arabian Ware " :
" The actual place of production of what is known to us as Arabian kiln-
burnt ware is not known. The body of the piece is made of copper, decorated
with designs in colours made of various materials fused together. It re-
sembles the cloisonne enamel-work of Fo-lang. We have seen urns for burn-
ing incense, vases for flowers, round boxes with covers, wine-cups, and the
like, but they are only fit for use in the ladies' inner apartments, being too
gaudy for the libraries of scholars of simple tastes. It is also called the ware
8941. i D