Chinese enamels are works of art in which coloured glass paste is fused onto a metal base, usually copper or bronze, by the techniques of cloisonné, champlevé or painted enamel. They include vases, bowls, censers, boxes, plaques, figures and furniture fittings, and they range from imperial pieces to export wares.
Cloisonné, in which enamel fills compartments formed by thin metal wires, is believed to have reached China from the West and flourished from the Ming dynasty, with pieces of the Jingtai reign of the fifteenth century particularly celebrated, so much so that the Chinese name for cloisonné refers to that reign. Painted enamels, applied freely onto the metal surface like painting on porcelain, were developed in the late seventeenth century under the Kangxi Emperor following contact with European enamelling, and were produced at the imperial workshops and in Canton, where much export ware was made. Enamelling continued into the twentieth century on a large scale. Collectors assess the clarity of the colours, the fineness of the wirework, the quality of gilding and condition, as pitting, cracking and restoration are common. Reign marks are often apocryphal.
