Abstract
THIS book treats of enamels and of their employment in artistic work from several points of view. The introductory chapter, which extends to 33 pages out of the 133 which the volume contains, is mainly historical and archæological. The eight plates which illustrate this section of the book are unsatisfactory, while the text is open to serious criticism. The author is mistaken when he describes the Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford as a ring, and when he affirms that it contains a “Byzantine enamel in a Saxon setting.” A strange passage, which is too funny to be missed, will be found on p. 7, where the mosque of Santa Sophia at Constantinople is stated to have suffered the destruction of many of its splendid enamels through the “fanaticism of the followers of Dost Mahommed.” The practical and technological details of Chapters i. to iv., with the illustrations which explain the operations described in the text, or represent the tools and apparatus employed, constitute the valuable portion of this treatise. One can discern throughout these pages the skilful and intelligent worker who has fought his way to success. We cannot speak of the final chapter, “The Manufacture of Enamels,” with equal confidence. It would be wiser to omit chemical formulæ altogether rather than to give NaO2BO3+10Aq. for borax, HOBO3 for boric acid, Cu2O for black oxide of copper, Cr2O2 for sesquioxide of chromium, and KOCrO3 for bichromate of potash. And what is the meaning of this sentence (p. 124), “Manganese is called in German, brown-stone, and by the French, peridot, after a town near Limoges where it was found”?
Theory and Practice of Art Enamelling upon Metals.
By Henry Cunynghame. Pp. xvi + 135. (Westminster: Archibald Constable and Co., 1899.)
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Theory and Practice of Art Enamelling upon Metals . Nature 61, 466 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/061466a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/061466a0