Enamelling
upon gold, with all its beauties and mysteries of production, seemed,
as if by magic, to have developed into a well-nigh perfect art, in
potent and inseparable alliance with that of the goldsmith. Truly
mysterious, as of the alchemists, were the secrets of the old
enamellers. Each possessed the valuable fruit of his own discoveries,
before manufacturers provided the vulgar supply of orthodox colours
which has done so much to check the patient invention of the
individual. Now, as then, to a lesser degree of course, we seekers
promote individual experiment to our utmost power, devoting ourselves
again and again to the improvement of our colours and the alloys of
gold most favourable to their production, until it seems that in this
important direction, we have little more to learn.
If
we except the emamel painting of Bordier's and 1'etitot's schools, as
well as some of the conceptions, though not the process of Limoges, all
good judges will admit that the technique of the Renaissance has not
only been reached but surpassed within the last hundred years.
The
specimens offered for your inspection to-night afford evidence of
British development of translucent enamels, second to none which have
been founded upon the almost invariable champleve of the Renaissance. I
do not propose to call your attention to existing technical processes,
either of chemistry or application, involving as they always do the
vested interests -of proprietors who have expended much time and money
in their cause. Our wish is to stimulate to useful sacrifices of time
and talent those whose capability is unquestioned, and those who have
never fairly tested their powers, or have preferred to rely upon the
monotonous, all but automatic sources of supply, open to the current
goldsmiths trade of this country.
If
the admirable combinations of enamels, with the technically imperfect
gems of the Renaissance, constituted the delight of the exalted few who
could possess them, and, to this moment, continue to be more eagerly
competed for than any other class of precious relics, why should we
despair of successfully founding upon them others as beautiful. Are we
not backed by infinitely greater facilities, in every sense of the
word, and by appliances, which had they existed in the 15 th century,
would perhaps have rendered our task hopeless.
Few,
indeed, of our skilled craftsmen are artists by intuition, in spite of
the golden opportunities afforded by South Kensington, with its
unrivalled exemplary museum, its schools of art, and numerous
beneficent dependencies. The valuable opportunity, therefore, now
presenting itself to the Applied Art Section of our Society for
encouraging competition by the skilled workmen, doubtless, will be
heartily responded to, and may be confidently expected to confer a
lasting benefit, firstly upon the operatives themselves, and next upon
their employers. The primary condition of such competition, it goes
without saying, should be purity and originality of conception, based
upon the characterÂistics of a given school, accommodated with taste
and judgment to modern purposes. It would be well if such designs were
capable of enrichment with the irreproachable gems of our age, and, if
they tended, in many instances, by the combination of beautiful
translucent enamel to develop this comparatively neglected branch of
the goldsmiths' art in England, encouragement in which, especially in
the experimental sense, has absolutely depended upon one or two
recognised masters only.
For
myself, I may say that I have never ceased striving in that direction
since 1862, although I have been annually reminded that the result of
each year's labour, from a purely commercial point of view, could not
have failed to be much more remunerative, had the similar amount been
expended in the production of inartistic, mechanical ornaments,
repeated ad nauseam.
The
" Applied Art Section" needs by its labours equally to enlist the
sympathies of workmen and employers, for is it not conceded under the
only possible conditions of a great art industry, dealing with gMii,
and, therefore, inseparable from the consideration of capitil, that the
eaterprise protecting and directing skilled labour into proper
channels, is of far greater importance to
