PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE.
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are eight different colors. The design appears to be carnation pinks, treated conventionally, quartering within an arabesque border of brilliant yellow dividing the area of the flowers from a’n outer.margin of a beautiful deep blue color. The ground-work of the central portion is white, being the general glazed surface upon which the enamels are laid. The great element of beauty in such a plaque is the relief, with a curved surface, of the design. It may be said to catch and reflect the light. The design is visible and brilliant, when viewed obliquely, in any position. There is no one best light in which to view it. Instead of the blinding glare of a plain mirror-like surface, the design stands out clearly and brilliantly, looking as if the flowers were laid upon the plate. This remarkable relief, in some portions to the extent of one-eighth of an inch, appears to be due, in the first place, to the composition of the enamel and management °f the heat, which permits incipient fusion without flowing. It is evidently not very fluid in the fire, and does not seem to have any special affinity for the ground-work glaze, for it does not spread upon it. The differently colored enamels would, however, unite, where they are placed side by side, were it not for a narrow dark line of a brown, earthy character, which is traced around every part of the design, isolating ea ch patch of colored enamel, and apparently preventing the flow by sinking into and drying up, so to speak, the soft v itreous surface of the glaze. It also serves the purpose of "setting off” each part of the design, and adds to the general effect. It is a dead, earthy surface, without lustre or relief. Girard, in reporting upon the beautiful enamels of Collinot io the Paris Exhibition of 1867, says that the absolute neatness of outline is obtained by tracing around each flower a cu preous composition, which, being modified by the fire, gives a metallic cavity, retaining the enamel in its place. This suggests cloissonee; but the border in the Choisy-le-Roi s pecimcn, and in Deck’s enamels, has no metallic appearance an d does not form any cavity. It simply presents a surface re pellant to the flow of the enamel, as a line of wax or oil repels water.