Art Nouveau Dish with Stem, 1904-05;  enamel, plique-à-jour enamel, silver, gilded silver. 

Gustav Gaudernack, Bohemian, 1865-1914. 

 

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Plique-à-jour’, the French for letting in daylight, being a technique in which tiny pieces of transparent and translucent enamel are held without backing in a metal cell framework so as to let light pass through them. 

 

A demanding and time-consuming skill with a high rate of failure.  And exquisite results when successful.