The Eighteenth-Century English Enamel Trade

The midland towns of Bilston, Birmingham and Wednesbury were the centre of the English enamel trade (1750–1830). Here a multitude of large and small workshops deployed great craftsmanship skill to form unimaginably thin copper sheet into decorated enamel objects ranging from small patch boxes to elaborate candlesticks. Knowledge of the craftmanship employed has been hindered by limited contemporaneous writing. Fortunately, extensive collections of objects provide primary evidence of the trade’s craft skills, and a means to better understand them. This article provides a survey of the midland trade; describes the manufacturing process, highlighting the complex copper-smithing process integral to the enamels form and desirability; and finally focuses on transfer printed tourist memento snuff boxes and textile patterned ware, products with a strong association with Bilston, which past scholars have largely disregarded. Through stylistic analysis this article re-positions them as significant in illuminating the trades creativity in exploiting new consumer markets

Dental enamel · Enamel paint · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · Scottish History and National Identity