Laocoon and the Trojan Horse

Despite operating for just a few years between 1753 and 1756, the York House factory in Battersea remains the most renowned of all British enamel manufactories because of the superior quality of its transfer printed designs. This decorative plaque depicts the Trojan priest Laocoon cautioning against bringing the wooden horse left by the Greeks into the city; his warning ultimately went unheeded.


Enameled objects like this one were intended to imitate the lustrous quality of porcelain at more affordable prices. By the middle of the eighteenth century, technological innovations had made it possible to roll copper, instead of the far costlier gold, into very thin sheets. Powdered glass mixed with minerals (to determine the opacity and color of the enamel) would then be applied onto the copper sheets and fired at high temperatures. A design—whether a famous portrait, generic pastoral scene, or floral motif— could be painted on by hand or copied from an engraving through the newly invented process of transfer printing. Many enameled objects combined both methods of decoration and would be refired after the application of each new layer or color.