Exposition

History Making: Replicating Eighteenth-Century enamel craftsmanship (last edited: 2021)

John Grayson
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open exposition

About this exposition

During the eighteenth century there was an extensive and thriving trade in the manufacture of enamelled copper-ware, e.g. snuff boxes, candlesticks, etc. These were affordable versions of the expensive porcelain equivalents that they emulated. When the trade disappeared in the nineteenth century knowledge of the way these things were created was lost. Informed by the researcher’s craft practice expertise an extensive and detailed survey of original pieces has now cast light on the nature of the skills and techniques deployed in forming the often convoluted shapes of the copper substrates, as well as illuminating some of the particularities of the enamelling process and decoration by transfer printing. Also uncovered is a greater understanding of how the network of small independent workshops, responsible for each stage in the production chain, must have interacted in order to create these marvellous items now celebrated in museums. Visual and haptic encounters with enamels in museum stores, such as those of the V&A, revealed hidden, complex and inventive copper constructions. Comparative analysis of manufacturing irregularities on enamel surfaces, taken together with the study of contemporary technical writing, yielded significant insights as to the modes of fabrication. Craft workshop experiments replicating the processes, indicated by these inquiries, confirmed the approaches that were originally used. An exhibition displaying the research process and copper manufacturing findings opened at, and was funded by, Ruthin Crafts Gallery—Wales’s main craft venue. It toured to Vittoria Street Gallery, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery, having in excess of 10,000 visitors. Curators acknowledge that this work fills significant gaps in enamel history. Ruthin’s Director noted the exhibition illuminated the critical and previously disregarded relationship between studio enamel craft and now defunct industries. Transfer-print findings were presented at the Print Networks Conference (2018) and published in a special edited volume of Midland History (2020).
typeresearch exposition
date01/12/2020
last modified26/01/2021
statusin progress
share statuspublic
copyrightJohn Grayson
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1071130/1071131


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