Enamels

Colonial Williamsburg’s collection of eighteenth-century Chinese and English enamel work ranges from small boxes to showy teawares, including many examples from Abby Aldrich Rockefeller’s collection.

Since ancient times, many cultures have fused powdered glass to metal to create colorful and beautiful enameled objects. Painted enamels were an important innovation of the eighteenth century. Using technologies perfected in the fused silver plate industry and decorative techniques already mastered by china and porcelain painters, painted enamel objects provided consumers with a fashionable alternative to grace their tea, dining, and even dressing tables. Eighteenth-century newspapers and other documents also recount the availability of small personal objects such as enamel snuff and patch boxes, toothpick cases, and smelling or scent bottles.