16 Facts About Enamelled glass

Enamelled glass or painted glass is glass which has been decorated with vitreous enamel and then fired to fuse the glasses.

All proper uses of the term "enamel" refer to Enamelled glass made into some flexible form, put into place on an object in another material, and then melted by heat to fuse them with the object.

Enamelled glass is only one of the techniques used in luxury glass, and at least until the Early Modern period it appears in each of the leading centres of this extravagant branch of the decorative arts, although it has tended to fall from fashion after two centuries or so.

Enamel on metal remained a constant in goldsmithing and jewellery, and though enamelled glass seems to virtually disappear at some points, this perhaps helped the technique to revive quickly when a suitable environment arrived.

Once painted, the enamelled glass vessel needs to be fired at a temperature high enough to melt the applied powder, but low enough that the vessel itself is only "softened" sufficiently to fuse the enamel with the glass surface, but not enough to deform or melt the original shape.

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Many pieces show two pontil marks on the base, where the pontil intruded on the Enamelled glass, showing it had been on the furnace twice, before and after the enamels were applied.

The enamels leave a layer of Enamelled glass projecting very slightly over the original surface, the edges of which can be felt by running a finger over the surface.

Enamelled glass is often used in combination with gilding, but lustreware, which often produces a "gold" metallic coating is a different process.

The base Enamelled glass is blue, and it has geometrical decoration in yellow and white enamels; it is 8.

Enamelled glass became more rare, and of rather poorer quality, in the 15th century.

Much Venetian Enamelled glass was exported, especially to the Holy Roman Empire, and copied increasingly expertly by local makers, especially in Germany and Bohemia.

Enamelled glass ceased to be fashionable in Italy by around 1550, but the broadly Venetian style remained popular in Germany and Bohemia until the mid-18th century, after which the remaining production was of much lower quality, though often bright and cheerful in a folk art way.

Enamelled glass was now relatively cheap, and the more basic styles were no longer a luxury preserve of the rich.

The Enamelled glass was hard to distinguish visually from porcelain, but much cheaper to make, and the enamel painting technique was very similar to the overglaze enamel painting by then the standard for expensive porcelain.

The best known American firm, making Tiffany Enamelled glass, was not especially associated with the use of enamel, but it frequently appears, often as a minor element in designs.

Enamelled glass is mostly associated with glass vessels, but the same technique has often been used on flat glass.