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A copper sample tile holds glossy blue, green and red enamel in recessed fields, beside a dish and scattered fragments of glass frit.

Enamelling: Glass Fused to Metal

How coloured glass is fused to metal, how champlevé differs from cloisonné, and what a 1446 Florentine reliquary shows.

Coloured glass fused to metal

Enamelling uses heat to fuse powdered glass, called frit, to metal. The metal supports the design while the glass brings colour and a vitreous surface. The placement of the frit gives different methods their characteristic outlines.1,2

Recesses and metal-wire cells

In champlevé, recesses are etched, carved or formed by casting the metal, then filled with frit. In cloisonné, slender metal wires fixed to the base make cells for the coloured glass. A Limoges reliquary in the V&A illustrates French champlevé work.1,2,3

A Florentine reliquary casket, 1446

A reliquary casket dated 1446 in the Met collection is catalogued as Italian and made in Florence, with attribution to the Circle of Lorenzo Ghiberti. Its listed materials are gilt copper and champlevé enamel. Recessed colour here joins a gilded metal form in a specific Renaissance object.4

Look closer

Schematic comparison of two copper enamel plaques: exaggerated sunken metal recesses at left and thin applied wire partitions at right.
Schematic comparison: left, champlevé cuts recesses into metal; right, cloisonné outlines cells with applied wire. Recess depth is exaggerated to show construction.
Sources and citations (5)
  1. Champlevé Enameling
  2. How was it made? Champlevé enamelling
  3. Techniques of Decoration on Arms and Armor
  4. Reliquary casket
  5. Fragment from sample set of Chinese cloisonné

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