China, India, and Persia have been famed from early times for their exquisite productions in enamels. Japan also has made, and continues to make, enamels of great beauty. The older or Cloisonn*š method is mostly in favour with the natives of the East, and very little Champlev*š work is executed. Although enamelling is an old art in China, yet Chinese enamels are rare that have been executed before the fifteenth century. In the Ming dynasty, under the Emperor King-tai (1450-7), enamel working was in its highest state of excellence.

The designs on the enamelled vases are pretty much the same as on all their other works, such as textiles, embroideries, and porcelain. In fact, a Chinese enamelled vase is as a rule very similar in shape, colour, and decoration to a porcelain one of the same country, and sometimes the likeness is so great as to demand a close inspection to determine which is enamel and which porcelain.

The Chinese used as a rule light colours in their enamel grounds: light turquoise blue, light olive green, or a bright yellow ground; the latter colour was mostly used in the painted enamels of the Thsing dynasty, yellow being the national colour of this dynasty. The general type of the design is made up of such things as a very crooked tree or branch, decorated with large clusters of flowers and foliage, slightly conventional in drawing; sometimes with birds and butterflies, or with dragons; some vases have one large dragon occupying the greater part of the field.

The colouring is generally very bright, the ground light and brilliant; the flowers may be red, deep blue, pansy-violet, golden yellow, or white. The foliage is usually of a crude emerald green type. Borders of conventional cloud forms or other geometric forms surround the panels, or form belts to the fields of the ornamental compositions.

Religious vases, altar furniture, perfume-burners, candlesticks, lamps, screens, and table-tops are some of the articles in Chinese enamels made invariably in the Cloisonn*š manner.

The Chinese also make a species of enamel that has no metal foundation, which consists of a cloisonnage of network in which the enamel is skilfully fused between the divisions, and is of a semi-translucent character.

Japanese Enamels

Japanese Enamels are more modern than the Chinese, old pieces of Japanese being extremely rare. The enamels of Japan are darker in the ground colour than the Chinese, being generally of a dark olive green, or of a warm neutral grey tint. Some very large vases, braziers, and large dishes are made by the Japanese. These wonderful people are extremely clever in the use of the enamellers' lamp and the blowpipe, for the purpose of fusing the enamel in sections, as the large pieces they made could not possibly be fired entire. The Chinese excel in the painting of enamels, but the Japanese do not seem to cultivate this art to any great extent.

Indian Enamels

Indian Enamels are characterized by their extreme brilliance and splendour of colouring, in which qualities they excel the enamels of all other countries. The native enamellers work in the translucent, Cloisonne, and Champ-lev*š processes, and the methods and secrets of their craft are kept in their families. Greens of the peacock and emerald hues, coral and ruby reds, torquoise and sapphire blues are the favourite Indian enamel colours.

The Celebrated Jaipur Enamels

The Celebrated Jaipur Enamels are of the Champlev*š kind. In Cashmere and in the Punjaub jewellery is made of gemmed gold and enamels (Fig 107). The Queen and the Prince of Wales possess many articles that are masterpieces of Indian enamelling. The Haka stand lent by the Queen to the Indian Museum is a splendid specimen of translucent painted enamel in green and blue, of the Mongol period (Fig. 108).

A large plate of Jaipur enamel, said to be the largest ever made, was presented to the Prince of Wales. A unique and beautiful specimen of the same kind of enamel is the Kalamdan, or pen-and-ink stand in the shape of an Indian gondola (Fig. 109).

The stern is formed of a peacock's head and body, the tail of which decorates in brilliant enamels the underneath part of the boat.

The canopy of the ink receptacle has green, blue, coral, and ruby enamels laid on a gold foundation.

The Vase, Or Sarai

The Vase, Or Sarai (Fig. 110) in possession of Lady Wyatt is a fine example of Cashmere enamel, on which the shawl pattern may be seen.

A kind of enamel is made at Pertabghar in Rajpu-tana, which consists in covering a plate of burnished gold with a rich green enamel, and placing on the surface while it is hot thin plates of gold ornaments, which are fastened to the enamel by heat; afterwards these gold plates are engraved elaborately with incised lines, so as to bring out the design. Sometimes the enamel itself is engraved, and an easily fused gold amalgam is rubbed into the incised lines, and fused to form the decoration.

Persian Enamels

Persian Enamels are applied mostly to the heads of "Kalians," or tobacco water-pipes, jewellery, and coffee-cup holders. The foundations are gold or copper. A large tray enamelled on copper on both sides is in the Kensington Museum. It is decorated with flowers of various colours on a white ground, and has an Armenian inscription with the date A.D. 1776, and comes from Ispahan. In most Persian enamels the grounds are usually of a white or light tint, with brightly coloured flowers as decoration.

Fig. 107. Necklace; Punjaub. (B).

Fig. 108. Enamelled Haka Stand; Mongol Period. (B).

Fig. 110. Enamelled Sarai; Punjaub. (B).