Cloisonné (klwazɔnay). Japanese shippō stems from an ancient mid-eastern technique for decorating metalwork. The design is transferred to the substrate, usually metal. Once the design has been transferred, wires are glued to the substrate affixing the wires on their thin edges and outlining the design. The wires (usually brass or silver, sometimes gold) have been flattened to make thin strips for fastening them to the object. The resulting cells are called “cloisons.” A “flux” of colorless enamel was sprinkled on the surface of the wired object to facilitate adherence of the wires into cells, and the object was fired.
Golden or gilded cloison wires of a Japanese cloisonné bowl, early Meiji period. This piece is overall cloison flowers to stabilize the enamels in their cloisons and has reverse cloisonné inside to stabilize the outer surface.
Vitreous (i.e., glassy) enamel powder (from ground glass) was mixed with another “flux” and stabilizer. It was separately fired in a kiln and color added—usually types of metallic oxide colorants (often imported from Europe), then ground into an even finer powder using a mortar and pestle. These finer powders were then moistened with water and carefully inserted into the wire cells with a bamboo stick or chopstick. With the moist glass powders now in place in their cloisons, the piece is fired again. The firing shrinks the enamel paste of its moisture; hence more layers are needed to fill the cloisons. Once filled, the enamel covers the wires. Finishing requires grinding and polishing until the wires reappear and a glassy appearance is achieved. Wires were often gilded in the finishing stage, appearing as gold, and a purpose-built box was constructed for the item.
Champlevé reverses the process; instead of wire cells, grooves are carved into the substrate and filled with enamel. The upper edges of the grooves serve the same purpose as cloisonné wires but contribute less to the result. There is, however, a technique of “wireless cloisonné” where the wires are hidden, removed, or not used.
Most of the present styles and techniques were developed in 1950s Nagoya. The technique began in the Meiji period and owes its early technical development to European influences. Its popularity profited from the reluctance in Japan to differentiate fine art from craft arts, and thus talent that would have gone into fine art was free to develop in craft arts such as cloisonné.
Cloisonné enamel objects were produced in the West. Finnish artists working for Fabergé were also famous for the technique, though not for Japanese styles.
Cloisonné “chargers” (so-called in English; in French “plâtre”) are plates. They are placed for decoration under dinner plates and removed before dessert to be seen and admired. All are unique in their design. One variable aspect is that some are scalloped, enabling a varied display with some round and others having different styles of scalloping—scallops project out from under the smaller dinner plate on top. Another variable related to cost (not quality) is using gold or silver, rather than bronze or tin wires, to make the cloison walls. Gold and silver were more flexible and easier to shape into complicated designs. Cloisonné chargers from the Edo and Meiji periods are plentiful and good for starting a collection. They can be displayed at home on a shelf or a wall, and high-quality chargers are plentiful in the antique market at often affordable prices.
Birds are a natural subject for cloisonné, allowing the artist free expression of the imagination and color schemes. Birds of various kinds (especially cranes) are a popular subject in the various visual arts, even less colorful ones, such as crows. Birds are shown in many other examples from the collection above and below.
