What Is Enamel Jewelry? A Guide to Guilloché, Sugared and Painted Enamel

Vintage signed Cathe yellow guilloche enamel brooch

Enamel is what gives so much vintage jewelry its color: the sunny yellow on a 1960s brooch, the pastel coat on a figural horse pin, the painted roses on a bangle. But "enamel" covers several different techniques, and knowing which one you're looking at tells you a lot about a piece.

Gold-tone pink and cream sugared enamel prancing horse brooch, from Oddly Darling Vintage
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What is enamel?

True enamel is powdered glass fused to metal with heat. When it melts, it forms a hard, glossy, colorful layer. Fine jewelry and better costume jewelry used fired enamel. Much mid-century costume jewelry also used cold enamel, a colored resin or paint that hardens without firing. Cold enamel was cheaper to make and can look very similar, but it's softer and scratches more easily.

Types of enamel on vintage jewelry

  • Guilloché: fine lines, waves or sunbursts are engraved or engine-turned into the metal, then covered with translucent enamel so the pattern shimmers through. Mid-century makers turned out lots of costume guilloché brooches and compacts in pastel and bright colors.
  • Sugared enamel: enamel with a frosty, grainy texture that looks dusted with sugar. It has a soft, matte sparkle and often shows up on figural brooches and flowers.
  • Painted enamel: roses, birds or little scenes painted onto an enameled panel, so each piece is a little different.
  • Flower power enamel: in the 1960s and early 1970s, big layered flower pins were stamped from thin metal and coated in bold, glossy enamel paint in hot pink, orange, yellow, or patriotic red, white and blue. They were cheap and cheerful then and are wildly collectible now.
  • Cloisonné: thin wires form tiny walls on the metal, and enamel fills each cell.
  • Champlevé: enamel fills hollows carved or cast into the metal, leaving metal lines showing between the colors.

See it in person: enamel jewelry in the shop

Each one is a single piece, so when it's gone, it's gone.

Condition to check

  • Chips and enamel loss: look closely at edges and raised areas, which take the most knocks.
  • Crazing and cracks: fine lines in fired enamel can come from age or from the metal being bent.
  • Scratches and rubbing: common on cold enamel and on pieces that were worn often.
  • Touch-ups: enamel can't be invisibly repaired. A spot with a slightly different shade or shine can mean paint or nail polish was used to fill a chip.

A jeweler's loupe or your phone's magnifier makes all of these much easier to see.

Signed or unsigned?

Many enamel brooches were made by well-known costume jewelry companies and are signed on the back. Unsigned pieces can be just as pretty and well made. Our guide on signed vs. unsigned brooches explains how a mark affects value, and our guide to dating a brooch by its pin back helps you place it in time.

Care

Wipe enamel with a soft, dry cloth. Don't soak it, use an ultrasonic cleaner or dip it in jewelry cleaner, which can loosen glue and dull the finish. Store enamel pieces separately so harder stones and metal clasps can't scratch them.

Shop vintage enamel jewelry

Curious about that black-and-gold bangle? Read our guide to damascene jewelry.

Keep browsing:

Vintage brooches →Mid-century jewelry →Signed designer jewelry →

Keep reading: What Is Cloisonné? · Who Was Serge Nekrassoff? · What Is Damascene Jewelry?

Do you have an enamel brooch that belonged to someone you love? Tell us what color it is and who wore it.