Method of ENAMELLING by the Lamp. Most enamelled works are wrought at the fire of a lamp, in which, instead of oil, they put melted horse-grease, which they call caballine oil. The lamp, which is of copper, or white iron, consists of two pieces; in one of which is a kind of oval plate, six inches long, and two high, in which they put the oil and the cotton. The other part, called the box, in which the lamp is inclosed, serves only to receive the oil which boils over by the force of the fire. This lamp, or, where several artists work together, two or three more lamps are placed on a table of proper height. Under the table, about the middle
Enamel
Encania. middle of its height, is a double pair of organ-bellows, which one of the workmen moves up and down with his foot to quicken the flame of the lamps, which are by this means excited to an incredible degree of vehemence. Grooves made with a gauge in the upper part of the table, and covered with parchment, convey the wind of the bellows to a pipe of glass before each lamp; and that the enamellers may not be incommoded with the heat of the lamp, every pipe is covered at six inches distance with a little tin plate, fixed into the table by a wooden handle. When the works do not require a long blast, they only use a glass pipe, into which they blow with their mouth.
It is incredible to what a degree of fineness and delicacy the threads of enamel may be drawn at the lamp. Those which are used in making false tufts of feathers are so fine, that they may be wound on the reel like silk or thread. The fictitious jets of all colours, used in embroideries, are also made of enamel; and that with so much art, that every small piece hath its hole to pass the thread through wherewith it is sewed. These holes are made by blowing them into long pieces; which they afterwards cut with a proper tool.
It is seldom that the Venetian or Dutch enamels are used alone: they commonly melt them in an iron-ladle, with an equal part glass or crystal; and when the two matters are in perfect fusion, they draw it out into threads of different sizes, according to the nature of the work. They take it out of the ladle while liquid, with two pieces of broken tobacco-pipes, which they extend from each other at arm's-length. If the thread is required still longer, then another workman holds one end, and continues to draw it out, while the first holds the enamel to the flame. Those threads, when cold, are cut into what lengths the workman thinks fit, but commonly from 10 to 12 inches; and as they are all round, if they are required to be flat, they must be drawn through a pair of pincers while yet hot. They have also another iron instrument in form of pincers, to draw out the enamel by the lamp when it is to be worked and disposed in figures. Lastly, they have glass-tubes of various sizes, serving to blow the enamel into various figures, and preserve the necessary vacancies therein; as also to spare the stuff, and form the contours. When the enameller is at work, he fits before his lamp with his foot on the step that moves on the bellows; and holding in his left hand the work to be enamelled, or the brass or iron-wires the figures are to be formed on, he directs with his right the enamel thread, which he holds to the flame with a management and patience equally surprising. There are few things they cannot make or represent with enamel; and some figures are as well finished, as if done by the most skilful carvers.