HISTORY OF BILSTON & BATTERSEA ENAMELS.

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Maude Crawford
5 years ago
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1 WHAT IS ENAMELLING? Enamelling is almost as old as glass. Glazes (or glasses) were used for the decoration of pottery and metals by the Chinese and the Egyptians, thousands of years ago. Enamel is merely an opaque glass. The composition of glass (borax and silica) is basically the same as that of enamels. Oxides are added to give the various colours. Tin oxide gives white, iron oxide-red, copper oxidegreen and so on. The ingredients of the raw enamel are ground to a fine powder and melted down. The molten mixture is poured into cold water, producing flint-like blocks of enamel frit. This is the material which the artist uses to produce his effects on metal boxes and plates. The three traditional types of enamelling are : cloisonnee, champlevee and painted enamels. Cloisonnee is the most ancient method of all and was brought to a very high art by the Chinese. The bent wires which " fence in " the coloured enamels makes this style easily recognisable. In champlevee enamelling, the recess for the enamel is first cut out with an engraver. The last method that of painted enamels is the method used by the Bilston and Battersea artists. For the purpose of painting, the enamel is ground to a very fine and smooth powder and then applied to the plain enamel ground with a brush. In all these methods, the enamelled object is fired in a small kiln developing an average heat of 1,000 C.

2 HISTORY OF BILSTON & BATTERSEA ENAMELS. There still seems to be much doubt about the exact dates of Bilston Enamels and up to the present, some confusion as to which are Bilston and which Battersea enamels. A factory founded by Sir Theodore Janssen at York House, Battersea produced Battersea Enamels from 1750 to Janssen became bankrupt in Records of a lease refer to an enamel works in Bilston in If this could be substantiated, it would prove that Bilston was first in the field. It is known that for nearly a century, enamelling was carried on in various parts of South Staffordshire apart from Bilston. From 1760 onwards, Bilston seems to have been the centre of the artistic enamelling trade. The three most famous enamellers were Bickley, Beckett and Perry. Other families in the trade were : James Brett of Bridge Street, Homer and Bickley of Homer's Fold, Thomas Hoo Foster of Foster's Fold, Benjamin Beckett's son (Edward Beckett) of Mt. Pleasant and Samuel Hanson of Swan Bank. The factories of Perry, Bickley and Beckett were situated at Temple Street, Bridge Street and Willenhall Road. It is interesting to picture the Bilston of that period a conglomeration of forges, small factories and coal pits, with the congested conditions of living which caused the Cholera Plagues of Throughout this period enamelling was carried on, although it was already artistically on the decline. There arose at this time much jealousy between the enamelling families over secret methods and recipes. So much so, that the gradually changing fashions were overlooked and the market for small trinkets, such as snuff boxes and patch boxes, completely disappeared. Had these family jealousies not arisen, it is interesting to speculate on whether new methods and ideas might have produced even finer work in the old tradition. 3

3 HOW TO DATE ENAMELS. Apart from the peculiar design and shape of the box or trinket, there are several ways of arriving at an approximate date for any example of the craft. First, look at the moulded copper rim. In the genuine article, this is always very finely made and of simple workmanlike design. The hinge should be square-cut and the thumb-catch of refined shape. All boxes having plain hinges or cheap beaded rims are obviously fakes. Next, examine the colours of the enamel. Dark blue was first used in 1755, Pea Green in 1759, and turquoise and claret in A steel mirror in a patch box indicates that the box was made prior to Very small boxes (oval or round) with stamped and corrugated sides were made after The designs used on Bilston enamels were often copied from a book published in " The Ladies' Amusement " or " The Whole Art of Japanning." Any enamels ' lifted ' from this book are obviously Bilston and not Battersea enamels. MODERN EXPERIMENTS. The writer recently spent many hours experimenting with the old technique of enamelling. No difficulty was experienced in obtaining results similar in style and finish to the genuine Bilston product. A gas muffle was used for firing and the enamels were ground in a pestle and mortar to the required degree of smoothness. The results of the experiment, which prove conclusively that the art is not a lost one, are included in the Exhibition of Enamels. 4

4 1 THE TECHNIQUE OF PAINTED ENAMELS. There are no secrets about painted enamels the art has never died out and indeed, is still practised in Birmingham in its old form. Modern commercial enamellers use exactly the same formulas for the production of enamelled hollow-ware as were known and used by both the ancient Chinese and the Bilston Enamellers. Only the market has changed. Enamel frit, the basic medium used in the craft, can be purchased from any enamel dealer. The only difference between commercial and artistic enamelling, is that in the former, the frit is made in bulk and in the latter, is ground (often by hand) to a very fine powder, in small quantities. To obtain the same effects as the old enamellers, a plain coat of white enamel is fired on to a very thin and domed copper shape. The copper is purposely domed in order to anticipate the shrinkage when the object cools down. Enamels of this type always crack if applied to a. flat sheet of copper. Afterwards, the required design is painted upon the plain ground and the object once more fired. Transfers are used in modern enamelling as in the traditional styles. For this an engraved plate is prepared and a print taken with enamel colour (instead of ink). This transfer is then applied to the box or trinket and made to adhere by the use of soft soap. The paper is later peeled away and the box fired. Clay added to enamel takes off the polish. Boracic frit gives a very high polish, as also does lead oxide. Small gas muffles were most commonly used for the firing of all small objects in enamel, and in many cases these were installed in the homes of the Bilston artists.

THE FUTURE OF ENAMELLING. Since the decline of artistic enamelling on small articles, the enamel trade has concentrated upon the production of plain household ware.

5 THE FUTURE OF ENAMELLING. Since the decline of artistic enamelling on small articles, the enamel trade has concentrated upon the production of plain household ware. There seems to be little attempt to capture a finer market by the production of well designed and patterned objects in the modern style. There are enormous possibilities in the production of such articles as biscuit barrels, tobacco and powder boxes. No doubt if the artistic talents of the younger generation were used in this direction, any enterprising firm might create a new post-war market. Such articles would not sell unless they were well made and beautifully designed. There seems to be plenty of room here for the employment of young artists such as any School of Art could supply. There is no doubt that the advent of plastics will be a blow to the hollow-ware trade. Unless the enamellers of today change over to a new market, it seems most probable that their fate will be the same as that of the Bilston and Battersea Enamellers. It would seem that the future of enamelling depends also on the discovery or use of new techniques. The production of a more elastic enamel body, the trial of new metal techniques developed during this war, and the employment of young designers for a switch-over to specialised art productions, seem the only hopes for the future of the enamel trade. Perhaps some firm of Bilston enamellers will take the lead in such experiments and begin a new era of Bilston enamels, not in imitation of the styles of two hundred years ago, but in a new and imaginative idiom.

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We are indebted to the following for generous loans of Bilston and Battersea Enamels : THE WOLVERHAMPTON MUNICIPAL MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY. CURATOR, A. A. COOPER, A.S.A.M. G. T. LUNT, ESQ., San Simeon, Newbridge Crescent, Wolverhampton. MARCUS KING, 425, Hagley Rd., Edgbaston, Birmingham. MRS. KIRK, of Wellington Road, Bilston. MRS. WARDLEY, Marina House, Spring Road, Lanesfield. K. H. LOWNDES, ESQ., Sedgley, Staffs. (The Permanent Collection of Bilston Enamels owned by the Bilston Museum, is also on view.) " FIVE CENTURIES OF PAINTING." The colour prints on view in the Art Gallery, were lent by the British Institute of Adult Education. They illustrate the development of painting from Giotto to modern times. From December 14th. 1943, for a period of one month, an exhibition of paintings of Canada by John Ensor will be on view. Admission free. This Exhibition is also sponsored by the British Institute of Adult Education. i \V. P. HODGKINSON, A.T.D. Hon Curator, Bilston Museum and Art Gallery.

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