King John gave to the city of Lynn a magnificent cup of gold, enamelled, with figures of courtiers of the period, engaged in the sports of hawking and hare-hunting, and dressed in the costume of the king’s reign.  “King John gave to the Corporation a rich cup and cover,” says Mackarel, “weighing seventy-three ounces, which is preserved to this day and upon all public occasions and entertainments used with some uncommon ceremonies at drinking the health of the King or Queen, and whoever goes to visit the Mayor must drink out of this cup, which contains a full pint.”  The colours of the enamels which are used as flat values in backgrounds to the little silver figures, are dark rose, clear blue, and soft green.  The dresses of the persons are also picked out in the same colours, varied from the grounds.  This cup was drawn by John Carter in 1787, he having had much trouble in getting permission to study the original for that purpose!  He took letters of introduction to the Corporation, but they appeared to suspect him of some imposture; at first they refused to entertain his proposal at all, but after several applications, he was allowed to have the original before him, in a closed room, in company with a person appointed by them but at his expense, to watch him and see that no harm came to the precious cup!

The translucent enamels on relief were made a great deal by the Italian goldsmiths; Vasari alludes to this class of work as “a species of painting united with sculpture.”

As enamel came by degrees to be used as if it were paint, one of the chief charms of the art died.  The limits of this art were its strength, and simple straight-forward use of the material was its best expression.  The method of making a painted enamel was as follows.  The design was laid out with a stilus on a copper plate.  Then a flux of plain enamel was fused on to the surface, all over it.  The drawing was then made again, on the same lines, in a dark medium, and the colours were laid flat inside the dark lines, accepting these lines as if they had been wires around cloisons.  All painted enamels had to be enamelled on the back as well, to prevent warping in the furnace when the shrinkage took place.  After each layer of colour the whole plate was fired.  In the fifteenth century these enamels were popular and retained some semblance of respect for the limitation of material; later, greater facility led, as it does in most of the arts, to a decadence in taste, and florid pictures, with as many colours and shadows as would appear in an oil painting, resulted.  Here and there, where special metallic brilliancy was desired, a leaf of gold was laid under the colour of some transparent enamel, giving a decorative lustre.  These bits of brilliant metal were known as paillons.