Limoges enamel

Limoges enamel was produced at Limoges, in south-western France, over several centuries up to the present. There are two periods when it was of European importance. From the 12th century to 1370 there was a large industry producing metal objects decorated in enamel using the champlevé technique, of which most survivals, and probably most of the original production, are religious objects such as reliquaries.

After a gap of a century, the industry revived in the late 15th century, now specializing in the technique of painted enamel, and within a few decades making rather more secular than religious pieces. In the French Renaissance it was the leading centre, with several dynastic workshops, who often signed or punchmarked their work. After a decline after about 1650, and later competition from porcelain, high-quality production revived in the mid-19th century, and adopted art nouveau and other contemporary styles, with a relatively small production.

Limoges was already the largest and most famous, but not the most high quality, European centre of champlevé vitreous enamel production by the 12th century; its works were known as Opus de Limogia or Labor Limogiae. The town's main competitors in the "budget" market were northern Spanish workshops, and Limoges work shows signs of Spanish and Islamic influence from very early on; it has been speculated that there was movement of workers between the two regions. The later vermiculated style and pseudo-Kufic borders are two examples of such influence. Some of the early Limoges enamel pieces display a band in pseudo-Kufic script, which "was a recurrent ornamental feature in Limoges and had long been adopted in Aquitaine".

Champlevé plaques and "chasse caskets" or reliquaries were eventually almost mass-produced and affordable by parish churches and the gentry. However the highest quality champlevé work came from the Mosan Valley, in pieces such as the Stavelot Triptych, and later the basse-taille enamellers of Paris, Siena and elsewhere led the top end of the market. But Limoges still received orders for important pieces for cathedrals or royal patrons, especially in the 12th and 13th centuries, and there were a range of qualities of work available. The industry was already in decline by 1370, when the brutal sack of the city after the Siege of Limoges by the English, led by Edward the Black Prince, effectively ended it. By then, goldsmiths in larger centres had mostly turned to other techniques such as basse-taille.

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