| ENAMEL ... |
There are several types of enamel procedures found on buttons. They include:
- Basse-taille: Metal engraved with a design (usually a geometric,
such as radiating lines or elaborate circles in circles) so when a layer
of enamelling is applied over the top, the design shows through. This
is sometimes by itself, or may have emaux peints over it.
- Champlevé: When people got tired of doing all the work with
the little wires in the cloisonné technique, they started stamping
out the design from the back, so that there are little pools, but without
any addition of wires. You can spot this because from the front it LOOKS
like cloisonné, but on the back, you can see the indentations.
- Cloisonné: Metal wires are affixed to the button front to
form little pools for the enamel to sit in. can be a pictorial or a simpler
design. The back of the button is usually smooth. Very old technique...
- Emaux Peints: Painted (as with a scene, or flowers, or whatever)
painted on the enamel.
- En Grisaille: Literally, "in grays." The button was painted with
white enamel, then black. Finally in areas, the black was removed,
letting the white show through.
- Limoges: French artists 16th and 17th Centuries introduced us to
this whole scene technique. Colors were contrasting... dark and light
laid side by side with no metal dividers. The enamel was thickly built
up in many layers over the base of copper.
- Plique-á-Jour: Enamelling between open spaces... imagine a
stained glass button. Now instead of glass, picture enamel. That's
plique-á-jour!
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