Case Containing Plaques
1 of 2
Object Label
This group of plaques shows the steps in the process for making cloisonné. Technically, cloisonné employs the diverse skills of painting, engraving, metalworking, casting, and firing. To create designs on metal vessels, enclosures made of bronze or copper called cloisons (French for “partitions”) are bent to the desired pattern and either pasted or soldered onto the body. Enamels are essentially glass, colored with metal oxides, that is ground to a powder, mixed with water, and placed as a paste inside the cloisons. The vessel is then fired at a low heat between 1280 and 1328 degrees Fahrenheit. During firing, the enamel may shrink; after cooling, the process is repeated and re-fired until the cells are completely filled with fused enamel.
Caption
Case Containing Plaques, late 19th–early 20th century. Cloisonne enamel on copper alloy, wooden box, Box: 1 3/16 x 10 13/16 x 12 in. (3 x 27.5 x 30.5 cm) each enamel: 2 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (6.4 x 8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Collection Fund, 33.287a-n. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.33.287_detail4.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Title
Case Containing Plaques
Date
late 19th–early 20th century
Geography
Place made: China
Medium
Cloisonne enamel on copper alloy, wooden box
Classification
Dimensions
Box: 1 3/16 x 10 13/16 x 12 in. (3 x 27.5 x 30.5 cm) each enamel: 2 1/2 x 3 1/8 in. (6.4 x 8 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Collection Fund
Accession Number
33.287a-n
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
I'm trying to make sense of the first several examples of the cloisonné technique. Is the design incised on the second plaque? Also what is the white powdery substance on the fourth and fifth?
With the cloisonné process seen here, the design is first etched or drawn onto the metal. After that, metal wires are attached to the surface. In this case, I believe the white substance may function like a primer.The enamel on these is rather thin, which is not the case in the Chinese court examples. The thinner enamel layers might have been harder to attain the intended colors in this case.I find the cloisonné technique fascinating and I'm so glad we have this step-by-step example of it in the collection!Thanks! Yeah I had always wondered about this process and those examples are super illustrative!What were these plaques used for?
The plaques illustrate the process of cloisonné. They could have been made as samples for a workshop. The objects on display were made in enamel workshops, where artisans in training could reference them.I wonder if the top right tablet is pre-fired enamel powder? Or wet packed enamel?
Based on what we know about cloisonné techniques in China at the time, these would have been colored using an enamel paste.The material shrinks when it is fired and more needs to be added to fill each space.Are all the samples in the case fired or do some show the dried enamel paste before it’s been fired?Some of these plaques show the paste unfired to help illustrate all the steps in the cloisonné process.They must be very fragile! Thank you!Tell me more.
This series of plaques illustrates the multi-step process required to create the beautiful cloisonné you see around them!Another visitor recently asked about the type of enamel that Qing dynasty artisans would have used. We determined that it would have been a paste. This colored, glass-like paste shrinks when it is fired which is why you see evidence of multiple rounds of coloring and firing before the piece is complete!Could you tell us what is cloisonné enamel?
Cloisonné is a technique where small partitions made of metal wire are glued to a metal base and then these little partitions are filled with enamel.The metal wires are soldered down and then translucent, colored enamel in whatever color the design requires is used to fill these holes. The vessel is fired (like a ceramic) to affix the enamel, but the enamel shrinks when it is fired, so this filling and firing process has to be done several times to get a full, brightly colored end product.Finally, the vessel is shined, and the wires are sometimes gilded, to create a brilliant finish.
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