earlier half of the sixteenth century, (apparently of French and Flemish workmanship,) are sufficiently numerous, although specimens in fine preservation now produce very large prices; some of them are of considerable dimensions, and they exhibit curious details of costume, armour, and architecture, bearing a close general resemblance to the woodcuts and illuminations of the period. The reverse of the plate is invariably covered with enamel of mottled or simple colour, the intention of which was to prevent the warping of the plate to any great extent, when exposed to the fire. The enamel in the earlier works of this nature is, however, laid on so thickly, that the face is usually found to be more or less convex, in consequence of the action of heat to which it had been exposed.
The perfection of the superficial process appears to have been due to the encouragement which was bestowed upon this as well as many arts of decoration by Francis I., who established a royal manufactory of enamels, and by the introduction of Italian artists and works of art, gave to the productions of the enamellers of Limoges excellence of design, as well as elaborate execution and skill in the application of colours. At first the vitreous pigments were chiefly of an opaque quality, but brilliant transparent glazes of colour were quickly after introduced, sometimes laid with most gorgeous effect on a silvered ground, or worked up with shadings produced by dark lines, rivalling almost the depth of tone and harmony of colouring displayed in painted glass.
The chief variations of process employed by enamellers during the middle ages having thus been briefly described, a detailed account of certain characteristic specimens, especially those which exist in England, may, as it is hoped, prove acceptable to those who take an interest in the investigation of ancient art.
In the museum of the Warwickshire Society, formed for the furtherance of research into the natural history and antiquities of the county, a few interesting relics are preserved, discovered at Chesterton, near to the Foss Way, and presented by Lord Willoughby de Broke. The most remarkable objects are four circular plates of bronze, each fitted to a kind of frame or setting of the same metal, from which they are now detached. Two of these ornaments, the intention of which it is not easy to explain, precisely similar in dimension and
