Plaque
1784 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The enamel painter or portrait miniaturist who painted this small enamelled copper plaque in 1784 has tried out samples of sixty-five coloured and white enamels for his own use. Enamelling is a painstaking and empirical art. The firing temperature of different enamel colours must be determined in advance so that colours can be applied and fired in the correct sequence. Nor do enamels reveal their true final colour tone until they have been fired in the kiln. By trying out different recipes and making a careful note of what ingredients were used for each colour, the painter could be confident that his finished work would accurately reflect the scheme that he had planned. Above each neat and tiny enamelled rectangle are numerals and sequences of dots which acted as a colour code for the painter. The palette here is particularly strong on browns, reds, pinks and yellows rather than blues and greens. The back is signed in black enamel with the artist's monogram and date.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Painted enamel on copper |
| Brief description | Oval copper plaque coated in white enamel and painted with sixty-five enamel trial colours, signed and dated on the reverse 'JCf 1784'. Probably English, dated 1784. |
| Physical description | Oval copper plaque coated on the front in a creamy-white enamel and painted with sixty-five enamel trial colours for the use of an enamel painter or portrait miniaturist. Each colour, including white, is painted in a very small neat rectangle above which are numerals or sequences of dots. The counter-enamel is thinner quality, allowing some traces of verdigris to form, and pitted with impurities. It is signed with the artist's monogram and dated in black enamel. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Object history | The plaque was lot 288 in Bonham's sale on the premises held at Trelissick House, Cornwall, 23rd July 2013. Leonard Daneham Cunliffe (1860-1937), co-founder of the merchant bank Cunliffe Brothers and for two years Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, took a lease on Trelissick in 1913 and bought the house in 1918. He was a keen collector and bought many items for his properties via art agents who obtained pieces for him from auction. Limoges enamels and portrait miniatures both featured in his bequest to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, so it was quite possibly Cunliffe who acquired this plaque rather than the Copeland family (of the Copeland Spode Staffordshire ceramics business) who inherited the property through descent. The plaque was not sold as part of the Copeland China Collection on 24th July 2013 but as part of the house contents on the preceding day. |
| Historical context | The palette is strong on browns, reds, pinks and yellows with fewer blues and greens. About a third of the colours have non-sequential number codes above them while many of the other colours have above them a number of dots ranging from one dot to five. The dots may indicate shade strength or degrees of tonality but this is not clear. |
| Summary | The enamel painter or portrait miniaturist who painted this small enamelled copper plaque in 1784 has tried out samples of sixty-five coloured and white enamels for his own use. Enamelling is a painstaking and empirical art. The firing temperature of different enamel colours must be determined in advance so that colours can be applied and fired in the correct sequence. Nor do enamels reveal their true final colour tone until they have been fired in the kiln. By trying out different recipes and making a careful note of what ingredients were used for each colour, the painter could be confident that his finished work would accurately reflect the scheme that he had planned. Above each neat and tiny enamelled rectangle are numerals and sequences of dots which acted as a colour code for the painter. The palette here is particularly strong on browns, reds, pinks and yellows rather than blues and greens. The back is signed in black enamel with the artist's monogram and date. |
| Bibliographic reference | 'The Contents of Trelissick House including the Copeland China Collection', Bonham's sale on the premises catalogue, 23 and 24 July 2013, Feock near Truro, Cornwall. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | C.71-2013 |
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| Record created | July 12, 2013 |
| Record URL |
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