Originated by the populations of the Mediterranean over three millennia ago in order to add color to precious metals, enameling is a decorative technique that strongly joins a vitreous compound with a metal surface through a melting process in oven. Only few masters can practice this procedure, which creates priceless and unalterable artifacts.

Etymology

The word enameling derives from enamel, a colored composite with protective and decorative properties resulting from the merger of potash, metal oxides, silica sand and soda. Mediterranean people gave it a name based on the Indo-European theme mal-, indicating the action to grind in order to make something mushy. In the Greek language, this name sounded like smagdos or, following another hypothesis, maltha. The terms were preserved in the Latin of III-IV century AD in the form (e)smalctum. The contact with barbarous races during the late Empire, led to further transformations of the word: among the Gallic it became esmal and among the German the verb schmelzen, literally melt, a term coming from the intermediate form *smaltian.

Production Technique

The enameling is obtained by heat through the union of the enamel and a metal (usually gold, copper, silver and iron): there must be a furnace capable of reaching a temperature (500-900 degrees) to melt the enamel on a metal surface so that the two materials remain strongly tied together even after cooling.
To achieve the highest aesthetic results, goldsmiths apply various techniques:

• Champlevé: removal of materials from the metal surface, to get cavities where enamel can be insert (in French, the word literally means “raised field”).

• Cloisonné: adding metal strips on the surface to get cavities, called cloisons, where enamel can be put.

• Bassetaille: the surface of the metal is decorated with a low relief design, which can be seen through translucent and transparent enamels.

• Painted enamel: engraving of the metal plate on which the colors are added directly with the paintbrush.

The final result is a metal artifact coated with a smooth, hard and bright surface.