A brief history of porcelain enamel: from artistic enamel to technical enamelling

Porcelain enamel is a glassy material deposited on a metallic substrate and fired at high temperatures (500-900 °C) to form a stable and permanent bond with it through chemical-physical reaction. This coating was developedin ancient times for decorative purposes and it was mainly used to embellish precious objects with colourful and glossy finishing as if to imitate the shining of precious stones. Only from 1760 enamelling of metal objects began to play a technical role. Nowadays vitreous enamel coatings are widely used and appreciated for high-duty technological applications, as they provide good corrosion protection of the covered substrates and they can withstand chemical attack, abrasion, and degradation caused by external agents, maintaining their aesthetical properties unchanged in time. This work is to introduce and describe the history of enamelling from ancient times to the modern era, revealing the glorious past of this material for decorative purposes and its use as a technical coating from the First Industrial Revolution onward.