ENAMEL

The Qing dynasty Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), a great lover of the arts, admired the new glass compound enamel colours coming from Eu- rope. These new colours were known as ‘Western colours’ in the Qing court and to master their techniques, Emperor Kangxi set up an enamel workshop in 1700 overseen by the Imperial workshop in Beijing and the former Limo- ges enameller and Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Gravereau (Chen Zhongxin), who was to play such a decisive role in achieving Kangxi’s goal.