In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Western Europe became increasingly fascinated with Oriental designs and art. This showed in imitative designs such as the large, ornate “Court at Delhi,” made in Dresden in the early 1700s.
In contrast, the Industrial Revolution yielded mass-produced decal-transfer designs on enameled pieces. These began in England with the Battersea enamels in the 1750s. They made some of the beauty of painted enamels widely available at modest cost.
Goldsmiths and silversmiths continued using enamel to accent jewelry and other items until the early twentieth century, when enameling declined in popularity. There were periodic revivals of the enamelist’s art in Europe. The best work came from such design studios as Ratzerdorfer in Vienna and the Augsburgs in Germany, to satisfy the tastes of the nobility and the new industrial rich. With the final fall of the old order after World War I, this form all but died.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the work of Faberge represented a Renaissance of enameling. The Russian court and nobility (and, eventually, the wealthy of the world) were his patrons. Studying the work of the ancient Russian, Greek and Chinese enamelers, he mastered and perfected the most complex techniques. A staff of highly trained Swedish and Finnish craftsmen executed his fabulous, extravagant pieces, including his famous eggs. The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 dispersed his workmen, ending this incredible episode of enameling.
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