"Mater Dei". Limoges, ca. 1700

"Mater Dei. Limoges, ca. 1700.
Enamel on copper.
Presents some losses.
Signed with initials (I.L.) in the lower right corner and on the reverse. These initials can be linked to the master enameler Jacques Laudin (1627-1695) known as Jacques I to distinguish him from his nephew Jacques II, who inherited his workshop in Limoges.
Measurements: 10 x 8 cm; 24 x 21.5 x 4 cm (frame).

Limoges, in central France, was famous for the production of champlevé enamels from the end of the 12th century until the city was destroyed by the Black Prince in 1370. The enamel industry began to revive about a century later, but the technique of painted enamels produced from the 1460s/70s was quite different from earlier medieval work.

Copper, probably from Spanish mines, was hammered into thin sheets. Such a plate would have been hammered to a slightly convex shape and coated with enamel (a mixture of powdered glass known as flux and metal oxides) on both the front and back. The back coating, known as counter enamel, was necessary to retard oxidation of the copper and balance the rate of expansion and contraction of the piece, which helped prevent the valuable paint on the front from cracking in the kiln. The design was outlined on the dark background color and then the image was built up with brush and palette knife, adding different colors of enamel in sequence according to their melting point. Thus, the piece could be fired eight or nine times, working from the color requiring the highest temperature to gilding at the end. Great skill, honed by careful experimentation, was needed to obtain the correct color and shade and a proper, uniform consistency of the glaze powder.

The result, after much time and effort, had to be as free as possible from bubbles, flaws, specks of dirt and cracks. A well-executed plate would have been a luxury item and probably made to order.