Enamels and enamelling; an introduction to the preparation and ...

ENAMELS AND ENAMELLING.
I.
INTRODUCTION.
THE art of covering metallic and other articles with a
coating, mostly composed of some coloured glaze,
is one of
considerable antiquity, and appears to have long been practised
by the cultivated peoples of Eastern Asia, viz., the Chinese
and Japanese. How long this same art has been known to
Europeans cannot be definitely stated, but that the practice
has been in vogue for several centuries is evidenced by the
presence, in different European museums, of variously coloured
specimens of enamelled work, most probably executed by
Byzantine artists.
Ancient records and the discoveries made in Egyptian,.
Grecian and Italian ruins, afford plenty of evidence that the
ancient Egyptians were acquainted with coloured glasses and
enamels, and knew how to manufacture them in various
shades, which knowledge appears also to have been shared
by the Greeks, who in many of the arts and sciences were
pupils of the Egyptians. Thus Democritus of Addera, who
flourished in the fifth century before our era, is said to have
discovered how to make imitation emeralds, and therefore
must have been acquainted with the materials used for
imparting a green coloration to glass.
The Roman, Pliny, to whom we are indebted for his com-
pilation on the condition of the natural science and technical
knowledge of the age, makes repeated
1
mention of coloured