The Goldsmith – Jeweler Of Egypt

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

7. Enamels and Mosaics

Jewelry-making in Egypt reached its highest level toward the close of the third millennium. In craftsmanship and creative design the work of the Twelfth Dynasty was never surpassed by the Egyptian goldsmith.

During this period jewelry became more colorful than ever before because, in addition to precious stones and metals, another substance—whose infinite variety of uses is still being explored today—was employed by the goldsmith. That substance was glass. Heretofore it had been used in only two ways—as a vitreous glaze for covering objects made of clay or stone and for solid glass beads. Such a thing as an entire vase or goblet of glass was as yet unheard of.

In earlier times when the goldsmith wished to add color to his jewelry he inlaid the gold with bits of sard, turquoise or lapis lazuli. These tiny pieces of stone had to be ground into the proper shape and size by rubbing them one against another before fitting them into their metal base—a long and tedious process. Glass, on the contrary, when used as enamel in place of insets of stone, required no such expenditure of laborious grinding, and when it was set in patterns rimmed with gold the effect of jewel-like color was scarcely distinguishable from that of stone inlay.

Glass enamel and paste (artificial glass gems) are made in much the same manner. Enamel is glass that has been pulverized, mixed with gum until it forms a paste which may be applied with a brush, and then hardened by firing. It must, of course, be a type of glass which is fusible at a moderate heat, that is, lower than the melting point of the metal base on which the enamel is used. The base, usually gold or bronze, is prepared in one of two ways, either Cloisonné or Champlevé.

The Cloisonné method calls for building up, on the metal surface, a series of small fences made of fine wire or thin strips of metal, and soldered into place. The resulting little compartments or cells—cloisons—are then filled with the glass paste which, after firing, becomes hard glassy bits of enamel. The little divisions or fences separating the jewel-like dots of color remain in evidence and are an essential part of the beauty of the design.

The Champlevé method differs from Cloisonné in that instead of little metal divisions being soldered to the surface, the solid base is itself scooped out, thus forming little compartments which hold the tiny pools of paste, each enclosed by thin dividing walls of metal.

Egyptian enamels were rich and colorful. They might be turquoise blue, cobalt, emerald green, purple, or milk white; but never colorless and transparent, for all glass, at that time and for centuries to follow, was opaque.

Another form in which the Egyptian of the Twelfth Dynasty used glass to ornament his jewelry was similar to that made famous in the Middle Ages by the glass-men of Venice and known to us by its Italian name, millefiori, which means ‘million flowers’.

The flower-like mosaics were composed of many tiny bits of glass put together in this manner: First, numbers of little glass rods, each of different color, were arranged so that their ends formed the desired pattern; then the bundle was fired and while still hot and pliable was drawn out lengthwise. This greatly reduced its diameter but did not alter the arrangement of colors. The composite bundle had now become a tiny rod of mosaic glass from which thin slices were cut crosswise, polished, and mounted in rings of pale gold.

The Goldsmith – Jeweler Of Egypt (continued)