Thank you for your thoughts on this piece. Since posting my question I've come
to a similar conclusion. I think it's champleve, not cloissone, and that
virtually all the excavation of the silver and, of course, the guilloche
patterns, were done with a rose engine rather than gravers. In the right hands
those machines were extremely accurate, readily cutting or excavating to within
a thousand of an inch. The cutters would need to changed after the excavation
of the base metal, at which point the guilloche patterns would be done.
Ramsay

--- In enamelforum@yahoogroups.com, "Anna-Margot Millton" <margot@...> wrote:
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Anna-Margot Millton
> To: enamelforum@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 12:05 PM
> Subject: Re: How Was This Done?
>
>
> The entire to is done in 1 piece, the groves for the black enamel are graved
out and the background work is cut at the same time, I would think doing it with
cloisonné wire would be much harder and nowhere as easy to get straight, you can
use a lathe to get the contour correct
> Anna-Margot
>