Champlevé

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A cup from Constantinople with champlevé décoration. (13th or 14th century). Louvre, Department of Decorative Arts

Plaque, 1554, Champlevé enamel on copper V&A Museum no. 4358-1857

Champlevé is an enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process, in which troughs or cells are carved into the surface of a metal object, and filled with vitreous enamel. The piece is then fired until the enamel melts, and when cooled the surface of the object is polished. The uncarved portions of the original surface remain visible as a frame for the enamel designs.

Champlevé is distinguished from the similar technique of cloisonné in which the troughs are created by soldering flat metal strips to the surface of the object. The difference between the techniques is analogous to the woodworking techniques of intarsia and marquetry.

The Mosan enamels of medieval France are of high quality, and the figures carved in the copper plate display a superb sense of line. The names of several Mosan goldsmith-enamellers are known.

A similar technique was known as "shippou-zogan" in Japan, where it was considered a form of damascening.

[edit] References

Cosgrove, Maynard Giles, The enamels of China and Japan, champlevé and cloisonné, London, Hale, 1974.
Hildburgh, Walter Leo, Medieval Spanish enamels and their relation to the origin and the development of copper champlevé enamels of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, London, Oxford university press, 1936.