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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

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VITRUM ANNULARE.                              371
singularly complicated piece. This Byzantine art was taken up by the Persians in the East, as the wonderful cup of Chosroes, in the Bibliothèque Impériale, remains to declare, and by the Anglo-Saxons in the West. The beautiful jewel made by order of King Alfred manifests their proficiency in the art ; and several other examples of Saxon skill in cloisonné enamelling ornament our collections.
The third and modern manner of enamelling upon a smooth surface came later into use, in the 15th century, being merely an adaptation to copper of the Moresco invention of painting with enamel colours upon a ground of stanniferous glaze laid over earthenware, which the Italians of those times were carrying out with so much success in their majolica. In this last development the vitreous glaze was merely laid on like water-colours upon the polished copper, with no longer any bed traced to direct it, the skilful application of the fire alone preventing the several colours from flowing, when fused, out of their proper positions. Of this style the best types are the pieces of Limoges work, now so much sought after, specimens of which appear soon after 1450, that is contemporaneously with the beginning of the majolica manufacture in Italy ; but the art only attained, perfection in the middle of the next century, when the paintings of the Hémonds display art as fine as that of their Italian rivals in the other branch of glaze ornamentation. Some nicely-finished paintings in this style may be found adorning jewels of the Cinque-cento ; but it was not before the age of Louis XIV. that the French, the great masters in this art, headed by the inimitable Petitot, produced miniatures as exquisitely finished and as spirited as the best paintings upon ivory.
This also is the method employed by the Chinese. It seems at variance with the history of that race to suppose they learnt the art from the Europeans. In fact they have applied it to works on a much larger scale than were ever attempted elsewhere. We have in this country tall ewers, capacious basins, elaborate vases, perfectly painted with enamels of the most vivid colours, and possessing this superiority over European enamels, that they are not injured by the contact of boiling water.
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