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48-399: The egg was created by Faberge's workmaster, Mikhail Evlampievich Perkhin (Russian, 1860–1903) with miniatures by Johannes Zehngraf (Danish, 1857–1908) It stands about 248 mm (9 3/4 in) tall on its stand, with a diameter of 98 mm (3 7/8 in.) The outer shell is rock crystal banded with emerald-green enameled gold studded with diamonds . On the apex of the egg

96-658: A champlevé piece. This occurs in several different regions, from ancient Egypt to Anglo-Saxon England. Once enamel becomes more common, as in medieval Europe after about 1000, the assumption that enamel was originally used becomes safer. In European art history, enamel was at its most important in the Middle Ages , beginning with the Late Romans and then the Byzantine , who began to use cloisonné enamel in imitation of cloisonné inlays of precious stones. The Byzantine enamel style

144-587: A cheaper method of achieving similar results. The earliest undisputed objects known to use enamel are a group of Mycenaean rings from Cyprus , dated to the 13th century BC. Although Egyptian pieces, including jewellery from the Tomb of Tutankhamun of c. 1325 BC, are frequently described as using "enamel", many scholars doubt the glass paste was sufficiently melted to be properly so described, and use terms such as "glass-paste". It seems possible that in Egyptian conditions

192-412: A ground coat layer is applied to create adhesion. The only surface preparation required for modern ground coats is degreasing of the steel with a mildly alkaline solution. White and coloured second "cover" coats of enamel are applied over the fired ground coat. For electrostatic enamels, the coloured enamel powder can be applied directly over a thin unfired ground coat "base coat" layer that is co-fired with

240-455: A liquid glass that is directed out of the furnace and thermal shocked with either water or steel rollers into frit. Colour in enamel is obtained by the addition of various minerals, often metal oxides cobalt , praseodymium , iron , or neodymium . The latter creates delicate shades ranging from pure violet through wine-red and warm grey. Enamel can be transparent, opaque or opalescent (translucent). Different enamel colours can be mixed to make

288-465: A master craftsman and his artistic potential must have been obvious to Fabergé who appointed him head workmaster in 1886. His workshop produced all types of objets de fantaisie in gold, enamel and hard stones. All the important commissions of the time, including some of the Imperial Easter Eggs , the renowned " Fabergé eggs ", were made in his workshop. His period as head Fabergé workmaster

336-548: A medium for portrait miniatures , spreading to England and other countries. This continued until the early 19th century. A Russian school developed, which used the technique on other objects, as in the Renaissance, and for relatively cheap religious pieces such as crosses and small icons. From either Byzantium or the Islamic world, the cloisonné technique reached China in the 13–14th centuries. The first written reference to cloisonné

384-561: A new colour, in the manner of paint. There are various types of frit, which may be applied in sequence. A ground coat is applied first; it usually contains smelted-in transition metal oxides such as cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese, and iron that facilitate adhesion to the metal. Next, clear and semi-opaque frits that contain material for producing colours are applied. The three main historical techniques for enamelling metal are: Variants, and less common techniques are: Other types: See also Japanese shipōyaki techniques . On sheet steel,

432-399: A pattern of birds and animals on a floral background in light blue, green, yellow and red. Gold has been used traditionally for Meenakari jewellery as it holds the enamel better, lasts longer and its lustre brings out the colours of the enamels. Silver , a later introduction, is used for artifacts like boxes, bowls, spoons, and art pieces. Copper began to be used for handicraft products after

480-519: A rainbow-coloured glaze and uchidashi ( repoussé ) technique, in which the metal foundation is hammered outwards to create a relief effect. Together with Hattori Tadasaburō he developed the moriage ("piling up") technique which places layers of enamel upon each other to create a three-dimensional effect. Namikawa Sōsuke developed a pictorial style that imitated paintings. He is known for shosen (minimised wires) and musen (wireless cloisonné): techniques developed with Wagener in which

528-419: A transparent black enamel which was used for backgrounds. Translucent enamels in various other colours followed during this period. Along with Tsukamoto Kaisuke , Wagener transformed the firing processes used by Japanese workshops, improving the quality of finishes and extending the variety of colours. Kawade Shibatarō introduced a variety of techniques, including nagare-gusuri (drip-glaze) which produces

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576-506: Is a 27-carat (5.4 g) Siberian emerald supported by an emerald-green enameled gold mount. This cabochon -style emerald is one of the largest gemstones Fabergé used in any of the Imperial eggs. The egg's base sits on a plinth of rock crystal. The base consists of a colorfully enameled gold double spheroid which is circled twice with rose-cut diamonds. It has the monograms of the Tsarina, as

624-485: Is applied to steel in which the carbon content is controlled to prevent unwanted reactions at the firing temperatures. Enamel can also be applied to gold, silver, copper, aluminium , stainless steel, and cast iron . Vitreous enamel has many useful properties: it is smooth, hard, chemically resistant, durable, scratch resistant (5–6 on the Mohs scale ), has long-lasting colour fastness, is easy to clean, and cannot burn. Enamel

672-458: Is framed in gold with an emerald on the apex. The frames are attached to a central fluted gold shaft which passes vertically through the egg. The locations include: The egg was presented by Nicholas II to Alexandra Fedorovna on March 24, 1896. She received it at Eastertide in the same year that the young couple had suddenly ascended the throne. In 1909, the egg was housed in the Empress' study in

720-458: Is generally acknowledged to be the most artistically innovative, with a huge range of styles from neo- Rococo to Renaissance . Vitreous enamel Vitreous enamel , also called porcelain enamel , is a material made by fusing powdered glass to a substrate by firing, usually between 750 and 850 °C (1,380 and 1,560 °F). The powder melts, flows, and then hardens to a smooth, durable vitreous coating. The word vitreous comes from

768-1080: Is glass, not paint, so it does not fade under ultraviolet light . A disadvantage of enamel is a tendency to crack or shatter when the substrate is stressed or bent, but modern enamels are relatively chip- and impact-resistant because of good thickness control and coefficients of thermal expansion well-matched to the metal. The Buick automobile company was founded by David Dunbar Buick with wealth earned by his development of improved enamelling processes, c. 1887, for sheet steel and cast iron. Such enameled ferrous material had, and still has, many applications: early 20th century and some modern advertising signs, interior oven walls, cooking pots , housing and interior walls of major kitchen appliances , housing and drums of clothes washers and dryers, sinks and cast iron bathtubs , farm storage silos , and processing equipment such as chemical reactors and pharmaceutical process tanks. Structures such as filling stations , bus stations and Lustron Houses had walls, ceilings and structural elements made of enamelled steel. One of

816-589: Is in a book from 1388, where it is called "Dashi ('Muslim') ware". No Chinese pieces that are clearly from the 14th century are known; the earliest datable pieces are from the reign of the Xuande Emperor (1425–1435), which, since they show a full use of Chinese styles, suggest considerable experience in the technique. Cloisonné remained very popular in China until the 19th century and is still produced today. The most elaborate and most highly valued Chinese pieces are from

864-417: Is known by different terms: on glass as enamelled glass , or "painted glass", and on pottery it is called overglaze decoration , "overglaze enamels" or "enamelling". The craft is called " enamelling ", the artists "enamellers" and the objects produced can be called "enamels". Enamelling is an old and widely adopted technology, for most of its history mainly used in jewellery and decorative art . Since

912-632: The Art Nouveau jewellers, for designers of bibelots such as the eggs of Peter Carl Fabergé and the enameled copper boxes of the Battersea enamellers, and for artists such as George Stubbs and other painters of portrait miniatures . Enamel was first applied commercially to sheet iron and steel in Austria and Germany in about 1850. Industrialization increased as the purity of raw materials increased and costs decreased. The wet application process started with

960-585: The Cleveland School of Art wrote three books on the topic including Enamel Art on Metals . In Australia , abstract artist Bernard Hesling brought the style into prominence with his variously sized steel plates, starting in 1957. A resurgence in enamel-based art took place near the end of the 20th century in the Soviet Union , led by artists like Alexei Maximov and Leonid Efros . Vitreous enamel can be applied to most metals. Most modern industrial enamel

1008-574: The House of Fabergé . With Henrik Wigström , he was one of the two leading workmasters of the House of Fabergé. Perkhin became the leading workmaster in the House of Fabergé in 1886 and supervised production of the eggs until his death in St. Petersburg in 1903. The eggs he was responsible for were marked with his initials. He worked initially as a journeyman in the workshop of Erik August Kollin . In 1884 he qualified as

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1056-515: The Mughal Empire by around 1600 for decorating gold and silver objects, and became a distinctive feature of Mughal jewellery. The Mughal court was known to employ mīnākār (enamelers). These craftsmen reached a peak of during the reign of Shah Jahan in the mid-17th century. Transparent enamels were popular during this time. Both cloissoné and champlevé were produced in Mughal, with champlevé used for

1104-621: The Romanesque period. In Gothic art the finest work is in basse-taille and ronde-bosse techniques, but cheaper champlevé works continued to be produced in large numbers for a wider market. Painted enamel remained in fashion for over a century, and in France developed into a sophisticated Renaissance and the Mannerist style, seen on objects such as large display dishes, ewers, inkwells and in small portraits. After it fell from fashion it continued as

1152-973: The Winter Palace . The egg was seized by the Kerensky Provisional Government and moved to the Armory Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow along with approximately 40 other eggs. In 1930, the Rock Crystal Egg was one of the ten Eggs sold by the Antikvariat (Trade Department) to the Hammer Galleries in New York City for 8000 rubles , or approximately $ 4000 U.S. In 1945 the egg became the last of five Imperial Easter Eggs bought by Lillian Thomas Pratt,

1200-427: The 18th century, enamels have also been applied to many metal consumer objects, such as some cooking vessels , steel sinks, and cast-iron bathtubs. It has also been used on some appliances , such as dishwashers , laundry machines , and refrigerators , and on marker boards and signage . The term "enamel" has also sometimes been applied to industrial materials other than vitreous enamel, such as enamel paint and

1248-439: The Empress. Each location holds a special memory for Nicholas and Alexandra in the early days of their courtship, as they had just been married two years prior, in 1894. When the large cabochon emerald on the apex is depressed it engages a mechanism that rotates the miniatures inside the egg. A hook moves down and folds the framed pictures back, like the pages of a book, so two paintings can be fully seen at one time. Each miniature

1296-562: The Gold Control Act, was enforced in India which compelled the Meenakars to look for an alternative material. Initially, the work of Meenakari often went unnoticed as this art was traditionally used on the back of pieces of kundan or gem-studded jewellery, allowing pieces to be reversible. More recently, the bright, jewel-like colours have made enamel popular with jewellery designers, including

1344-483: The Latin vitreus , meaning "glassy". Enamel can be used on metal , glass , ceramics , stone, or any material that will withstand the fusing temperature. In technical terms fired enamelware is an integrated layered composite of glass and another material (or more glass). The term "enamel" is most often restricted to work on metal, which is the subject of this article. Essentially the same technique used with other bases

1392-481: The Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt before her marriage, and later as Alexandra Fedorovna, Empress of Russia. Each monogram is surmounted with a diamond crown of the respective royal house. These monograms form a continuous pattern around the base of the egg. Inside the rock crystal egg is a gold support holding twelve miniature paintings. The paintings are of the various palaces and residences that were significant to

1440-462: The Roman military market, which has swirling enamel decoration in a Celtic style. In Britain, probably through preserved Celtic craft skills, enamel survived until the hanging bowls of early Anglo-Saxon art . A problem that adds to the uncertainty over early enamel is artefacts (typically excavated) that appear to have been prepared for enamel, but have now lost whatever filled the cloisons or backing to

1488-666: The ancient Celts. Red enamel is used in 26 places on the Battersea Shield (c.350–50 BC), probably as an imitation of the red Mediterranean coral , which is used on the Witham Shield (400–300 BC). Pliny the Elder mentions the Celts' use of the technique on metal, which the Romans in his day hardly knew. The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan is a 2nd-century AD souvenir of Hadrian's Wall , made for

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1536-469: The anode in an electrogalvanic reaction in which the iron is again oxidised, dissolved by the glass, and oxidised again with the available cobalt and nickel limiting the reaction. Finally, the surface becomes roughened with the glass anchored into the holes. Enamel coatings applied to steel panels offer protection to the core material whether cladding road tunnels, underground stations, building superstructures or other applications. It can also be specified as

1584-454: The cover coat in a very efficient two-coat/one-fire process. The frit in the ground coat contains smelted-in cobalt and/or nickel oxide as well as other transition metal oxides to catalyse the enamel-steel bonding reactions. During firing of the enamel at between 760 and 895 °C (1,400 and 1,643 °F), iron oxide scale first forms on the steel. The molten enamel dissolves the iron oxide and precipitates cobalt and nickel . The iron acts as

1632-522: The discovery of the use of clay to suspend frit in water. Developments that followed during the 20th century include enamelling-grade steel, cleaned-only surface preparation, automation, and ongoing improvements in efficiency, performance, and quality. Between the World Wars, Cleveland in the United States became a center for enamel art, led by Kenneth F. Bates ; H. Edward Winter who had taught at

1680-626: The early Ming dynasty , especially the reigns of the Xuande Emperor and Jingtai Emperor (1450–1457), although 19th century or modern pieces are far more common. Japanese artists did not make three-dimensional enamelled objects until the 1830s but, once the technique took hold based on analysis of Chinese objects, it developed very rapidly, reaching a peak in the Meiji and Taishō eras (late 19th/early 20th century). Enamel had been used as decoration for metalwork since about 1600, and Japanese cloisonné

1728-406: The few makers from this era still active. Distinctively Japanese designs, in which flowers, birds and insects were used as themes, became popular. Designs also increasingly used areas of blank space. With the greater subtlety these techniques allowed, Japanese enamels were regarded as unequalled in the world and won many awards at national and international exhibitions. Enamel was established in

1776-657: The finest pieces. Modern industrial production began in Calcutta in 1921, with the Bengal Enamel Works Limited. Enamel was used in Iran for colouring and ornamenting the surface of metals by fusing over it brilliant colours that are decorated in an intricate design called Meenakari . The French traveller Jean Chardin , who toured Iran during the Safavid period, made a reference to an enamel work of Isfahan , which comprised

1824-485: The last ten years include enamel/non-stick hybrid coatings, sol-gel functional top-coats for enamels, enamels with a metallic appearance, and easy-to-clean enamels. The key ingredient of vitreous enamel is finely ground glass called frit . Frit for enamelling steel is typically an alkali borosilicate glass with a thermal expansion and glass temperature suitable for coating steel. Raw materials are smelted together between 2,100 and 2,650 °F (1,150 and 1,450 °C) into

1872-583: The melting point of the glass and gold were too close to make enamel a viable technique. Nonetheless, there appear to be a few actual examples of enamel, perhaps from the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt (beginning 1070 BC) on. But it remained rare in both Egypt and Greece. The technique appears in the Koban culture of the northern and central Caucasus , and was perhaps carried by the Sarmatians to

1920-489: The most famous centre of vitreous enamel production in Western Europe, though Spain also made a good deal. Limoges became famous for champlevé enamels from the 12th century onwards, producing on a large scale, and then (after a period of reduced production) from the 15th century retained its lead by switching to painted enamel on flat metal plaques. The champlevé technique was considerably easier and very widely practiced in

1968-423: The most widespread modern uses of enamel is in the production of quality chalk-boards and marker-boards (typically called 'blackboards' or 'whiteboards') where the resistance of enamel to wear and chemicals ensures that 'ghosting', or unerasable marks, do not occur, as happens with polymer boards. Since standard enamelling steel is magnetically attractive, it may also be used for magnet boards. Some new developments in

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2016-530: The output of many small workshops and help them improve their work. In 1874, the government created the Kiriu kosho kaisha company to sponsor the creation of a wide range of decorative arts at international exhibitions. This was part of a programme to promote Japan as a modern, industrial nation. Gottfried Wagener was a German scientist brought in by the government to advise Japanese industry and improve production processes. Along with Namikawa Yasuyuki he developed

2064-532: The polymers coating enameled wire ; these actually are very different in materials science terms. The word enamel comes from the Old High German word smelzan (to smelt ) via the Old French esmail , or from a Latin word smaltum , first found in a 9th-century Life of Leo IV . Used as a noun, "an enamel" is usually a small decorative object coated with enamel. "Enamelled" and "enamelling" are

2112-596: The preferred spellings in British English , while "enameled" and "enameling" are preferred in American English . The earliest enamel all used the cloisonné technique, placing the enamel within small cells with gold walls. This had been used as a technique to hold pieces of stone and gems tightly in place since the 3rd millennium BC, for example in Mesopotamia , and then Egypt. Enamel seems likely to have developed as

2160-769: The wife of a General Motors executive John Lee Pratt . Upon Lillian Thomas Pratt's death in 1947, the egg was willed to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts , Richmond , Virginia . It remains on view as part of the Virginia Museum of Fine Art's European Decorative Art collection. Michael Perkhin Michael Evlampievich Perkhin ( Russian : Михаил Евлампиевич Перхин ; 1860-1903) was a Russian jeweler . Born in Okulovskaya in Olonets Governorate (now Republic of Karelia ), he moved to St. Petersburg , he joined

2208-455: The wire cloisons are minimised or burned away completely with acid. This contrasts with the Chinese style which used thick metal cloisons . Ando Jubei introduced the shōtai-jippō ( plique-à-jour ) technique which burns away the metal substrate to leave translucent enamel, producing an effect resembling stained glass . The Ando Cloisonné Company which he co-founded is one of

2256-823: Was already exported to Europe before the start of the Meiji era in 1868. Cloisonné is known in Japan as shippo , literally "seven treasures". This refers to richly coloured substances mentioned in Buddhist texts. The term was initially used for colourful objects imported from China. According to legend, in the 1830s Kaji Tsunekichi broke open a Chinese enamel object to examine it, then trained many artists, starting off Japan's own enamel industry. Early Japanese enamels were cloudy and opaque, with relatively clumsy shapes. This changed rapidly from 1870 onwards. The Nagoya cloisonné company ( Nagoya shippo kaisha existed from 1871 to 1884, to sell

2304-476: Was widely adopted by the peoples of Migration Period northern Europe. The Byzantines then began to use cloisonné more freely to create images; this was also copied in Western Europe. In Kievan Rus a finift enamel technique was developed. Mosan metalwork often included enamel plaques of the highest quality in reliquaries and other large works of goldsmithing . Limoges enamel was made in Limoges , France,

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