English artificers about that period were not unskilled in the art of enamelling, that in the Roll of the inhabitants of Paris, A.D. 1292, the names of gold-workers appear, designated as Englishmen, or of London, and that of five enamellers then settled in Paris, one entered as "Richardin l'esmailléur, de Londres[1]."
Sloane MS. 1754, f. 231.
"Ad faciendum emallum, Emallum sic fit. Accipe plumbum et funde, semper accipiendo crustulam super eminentem, quousque totum vastetur plumbum, de quo accipe partem unam, et de pulvere subscripto tantumdem; et est iste pulvis; Accipe parvos lapillos albos qui sunt in aquis, et contere ipsos in pulverem minutissimum; et si volueris habere citrinum, appone oleum de avellanis, et move cum virgâ coruli: pro viridi, appone limaturam cupri, vel viride Grecum; pro rubeo, appone limaturam latonis cum calaminâ; pro indico, azorium bonum vel saffre, unde vitrearii faciunt vitrum indicum."
To make enamel. Enamel is thus made: take lead, and melt it, continually taking off the pellicle which floats on the surface, until the whole of the lead is wasted away; of which take one part, and of the powder here- after mentioned, as much; and this is the said powder: take small white pebbles which are found in streams, and pound them into most subtle powder; and if you wish to have yellow enamel, add oil of filberts and stir with a hazle rod; for green, add filings of copper, or verdigris; for red, add filings of latten with calamine; for blue, good azure[2] or saffre, of which glaziers make blue glass. ALBERT WAY.- ↑ Documens Inédits; Paris sous Philippe le Bel, p. 23.
- ↑ See in the same MS. f. 234, "pro asuro faciendo," the chief ingredient being "lapides lazuli, i. lapis minere." Compare f. 225, 236, vo. "ad faciendum lazurium," a composition of quicksilver, sal armoniac, &c. The mention of "saffre," if by that term may be understood zaffre, or cobalt, deserves especial notice; but some writers suppose that the sapphire of the ancients was our lapis-lazuli. See Beckman's notices of Ultramarine and Cobalt, Hist. of Inv., vol. ii.
