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500 Series
[(500 Enameled Objects: A Celebration of Color on Metal )] [Author: Lark Books] [Jul-2009]
The classic art of enameling is experiencing a well-deserved renaissance—and it’s stunningly captured in this lovingly curated survey. More than 300 international contemporary artists have contributed museum-worthy pieces, which range in scale from David C. Freda’s Green Slipper Brooch and Harlan W. Butt’s Maine Teapot to large sculptures and public art. Some of the creators take a minimalist approach, using only soft colors and matte finishes, while others exploit the material’s vibrant palette and glass-like surface. The broad technical applications include everything from simple sifting and torch firing to complex cloisonné and plique-à-jour.
- GenresArtNonfiction
Unknown Binding
First published April 7, 2009
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 18, 2025
Marthe Le Van’s 500 Enamelled Objects is an exercise in visual generosity: a catalogue raisonné of the enamelled surface presented less as dry typology and more as a sustained love letter to colour, light, and the tiny, deliberate acts of making that turn metal and glass into something incandescent. The book’s premise is simple and irresistible — five hundred examples, each an occasion to dwell on enamel’s paradox: a fragile glaze that confers an almost architectural permanence to the most delicate gestures of decoration.
Thematic sweep and curatorial intelligence
Le Van organizes the material with the sensibility of a poet-critic rather than a conservator-archivist. Rather than rigid chronological or geographic compartments, the book arranges objects around affinities of colour, technique, and motif. This associative choreography allows readers to trace recurring motifs — botanical arabesques, pictorial miniatures, geometric abstraction — as variations on enamel’s capacity to refract and hold light. The arrangement invites comparative looking: cloisonné beside champlevé, 19th-century French medallions counterpointed with mid-20th-century studio experiments. Through this, the author implicitly argues that enamel is less a set of historical styles than a continual set of answers to the same question: how can surface become the work’s principal subject?
Craft, technique, and the material argument
One of the book’s abiding strengths is its lucid attention to technique. Le Van balances affectionate description with technical vocabulary — cloisonné, plique-à-jour, grisaille, flux enamelling — rendered accessible through concise captions and occasional sectional essays. These passages do the important scholarly work of reminding readers that colour in enamel is not merely pigment but chemistry and fire: the artist’s palette is a calcined dialogue between metal, powdered glass, fluxes, and kiln. The result is a satisfying middle voice — neither overly didactic for the non-specialist nor reductive for the informed reader.
Visual apparatus and design
Given the subject, photography is inevitably central; the book largely succeeds. Close-ups that isolate the shimmer of a translucent blue or the fine wire of a cloison are paired with contextual views that show how an object’s scale and form shape our perception of its surface. It’s layout privileges white space and typographic restraint, which lets the objects “breathe” on the page — an apt decision for a subject whose primary virtue is subtlety. If there is a minor complaint, it is that a handful of images might have benefited from more uniform lighting or standardized scale bars to aid comparative study; but this is a quibble against an otherwise polished photographic programme.
Critical observations
Le Van’s voice is appreciative and occasionally reverential; at moments the book leans toward celebration to the detriment of critical distance. Readers seeking deep archival provenance, rigorous market history, or exhaustive technical analysis (for conservation specialists, say) may find the coverage light. Similarly, while the book gestures toward global practice, certain regions and contemporary practitioners receive more attention than others, producing an implicit canon that might have been further democratized. That said, these lapses rarely undermine the book’s central achievement: making readers look — really look — and think about enamel as a dynamic site where craft, design, and fine art converge.
Audience and value
This volume sits happily at the intersection of museum coffee-table book and introductory reference. It will reward craft practitioners, designers, and collectors who want panoramic visual inspiration, and it will serve students and general readers as an elegant primer on enamel’s techniques and aesthetic possibilities. Specialists will appreciate the clarity of the technical overviews even if they will supplement the book with more specialized sources.
500 Enamelled Objects is, ultimately, an act of visual pedagogy carried off with warmth and clarity. This book rekindles a habit that is vanishing in contemporary culture: delicate, sustained looking. It does not attempt to settle scholarly debates; instead, it widens our field of attention and reminds us that, in the hands of deft makers, the union of glass and metal can produce not merely ornament but pure optical wonder. Highly recommended for anyone who delights in colour, surface, and the craft histories that make luminous objects possible.
Thematic sweep and curatorial intelligence
Le Van organizes the material with the sensibility of a poet-critic rather than a conservator-archivist. Rather than rigid chronological or geographic compartments, the book arranges objects around affinities of colour, technique, and motif. This associative choreography allows readers to trace recurring motifs — botanical arabesques, pictorial miniatures, geometric abstraction — as variations on enamel’s capacity to refract and hold light. The arrangement invites comparative looking: cloisonné beside champlevé, 19th-century French medallions counterpointed with mid-20th-century studio experiments. Through this, the author implicitly argues that enamel is less a set of historical styles than a continual set of answers to the same question: how can surface become the work’s principal subject?
Craft, technique, and the material argument
One of the book’s abiding strengths is its lucid attention to technique. Le Van balances affectionate description with technical vocabulary — cloisonné, plique-à-jour, grisaille, flux enamelling — rendered accessible through concise captions and occasional sectional essays. These passages do the important scholarly work of reminding readers that colour in enamel is not merely pigment but chemistry and fire: the artist’s palette is a calcined dialogue between metal, powdered glass, fluxes, and kiln. The result is a satisfying middle voice — neither overly didactic for the non-specialist nor reductive for the informed reader.
Visual apparatus and design
Given the subject, photography is inevitably central; the book largely succeeds. Close-ups that isolate the shimmer of a translucent blue or the fine wire of a cloison are paired with contextual views that show how an object’s scale and form shape our perception of its surface. It’s layout privileges white space and typographic restraint, which lets the objects “breathe” on the page — an apt decision for a subject whose primary virtue is subtlety. If there is a minor complaint, it is that a handful of images might have benefited from more uniform lighting or standardized scale bars to aid comparative study; but this is a quibble against an otherwise polished photographic programme.
Critical observations
Le Van’s voice is appreciative and occasionally reverential; at moments the book leans toward celebration to the detriment of critical distance. Readers seeking deep archival provenance, rigorous market history, or exhaustive technical analysis (for conservation specialists, say) may find the coverage light. Similarly, while the book gestures toward global practice, certain regions and contemporary practitioners receive more attention than others, producing an implicit canon that might have been further democratized. That said, these lapses rarely undermine the book’s central achievement: making readers look — really look — and think about enamel as a dynamic site where craft, design, and fine art converge.
Audience and value
This volume sits happily at the intersection of museum coffee-table book and introductory reference. It will reward craft practitioners, designers, and collectors who want panoramic visual inspiration, and it will serve students and general readers as an elegant primer on enamel’s techniques and aesthetic possibilities. Specialists will appreciate the clarity of the technical overviews even if they will supplement the book with more specialized sources.
500 Enamelled Objects is, ultimately, an act of visual pedagogy carried off with warmth and clarity. This book rekindles a habit that is vanishing in contemporary culture: delicate, sustained looking. It does not attempt to settle scholarly debates; instead, it widens our field of attention and reminds us that, in the hands of deft makers, the union of glass and metal can produce not merely ornament but pure optical wonder. Highly recommended for anyone who delights in colour, surface, and the craft histories that make luminous objects possible.
June 16, 2009
This book is kind of part of a series by Lark (500 ________). These books have served me and many people I know as a source of Inspiration. They show one of a kind, hand made pieces by artists from all over the world. Some of the pieces also have descriptions from the artist about what inspired the piece or the ideas behind it. In a classroom, students could look at these books for ideas and see where other artists take their ideas from.
dnf-2
November 5, 2020About as ugly a collection as I've ever seen. Lark has produced far better volumes in this series, such as their 500 Rings volume.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews