RUSSIAN IMPERIAL COLLECTION

The art of plique-a-jour enameling of fine jewelry burst onto the public scene during the Art Nouveau period with the work of french masters , at the turn of the century. At about the same time, Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé, born in 1846, was just becoming famous. He learned his art working at the Hermitage, the storehouse for all of the Russian czars where he did repairs as well as appraisals and inventories. His best known works are the famous Fabergé eggs made as gifts for the Czar, made of intricate gold forms inlaid with the vivid rainbow of enamel colors for which his work is so unique. Faberge exhibited his work at a fair in Moscow where Czar Alexander III and his wife, Czarina Maria, saw Faberge's skill in enamel work, and he made a purchase and presented him with a gold medal honoring him as "having opened a new era in jewelry art." The House of Fabergé employed the most skilled artisans in the world although it is interesting that Fabergé himself never made any of the famous eggs.

First popular with the public in the late 19th century, plique-a-jour is a difficult technique and requires the ability to create the finest filigree of gold, silver, and copper entirely by hand, and then to apply the brilliant colors of vitreous, glass like enamel which fuses with the metal. The metalwork forms an intricate frame or skeleton into which the enamels are applied, but there is no backing material to the frame so the enamels have to fuse with the metal to create the finished surface. Plique-a-jour jewelry is most often created commencing with a thin sheet of gold or silver. The sheet is pierced or cut using fine art specialty tools to create the pattern into which paste enamels will be applied. Where a backing material is used, it is later removed by dissolving or polishing after the piece is completed. Another lesser used technique in the manufacture of plique-s-jour is to suspend wires in soft molten clear enamel which rests on a copper base. This assembly is subsequently enameled in the chosen colors and the base is removed.
 

A technique closely related to plique-a-jour is cloisonné. Cloisonné is created by attaching  strips of gold, silver, or brass to a metal base. This builds up an intricate grid of "cloisons", or cells, into which the enamel, often in paste form, is applied. The network of cloisons also helps separate the colors, allowing for intricate, colorful work. When the enamel is set, the enamel is ground to a smooth finish and polished to a brilliant luster. Repeated firings are used which gradually build up the depth of the enamel to the desired thickness until you can still faintly see the outline of the cloisonns within the enamel. Said to originate in Britain, the champlevé technique is to fill recesses in the metal made by casting or engraving opaque red, blue, green, or white enamels. The piece is then polished to be even with the cells analogous to the finishing performed on plique-a-jour or cloisonné.  Another related technique is basse-taille, in which a base metal such as silver or gold is engraved, then covered with a clear enamel through which one can see the metal engraving. 


CHAMPLEVE: (cavity fusion enamel): depressions are made in the metal and filled with coloured opaque enamel.

BASSE-TAILLE: enamel is laid in depressions that are carved in low relief. The different depth of the carvings gives different shades of colour.

GUILLOCHE: metal is incised, by machine, with parallel, intertwined, concentric or circular lines to form a wave-like pattern. Translucent enamel is laid on so the incised pattern remains visible.

CLOISONNE: metal ridges are soldered on a plate in an outline and form compartments that are filled with enamel.

PLIQUE-A-JOUR: a filigree design is made of silver wire and its strands are soldered together. The openings are filled with transparent enamel. Hence you wind up with a stained glass window effect.