pâte-sur-pâte

An expensive and tricky method of decorating porcelain in which designs are painted in successive layers of white porcelain slip applied in slight relief on vessels or plaques of unfired clay and lightly carved with metal instruments before first firing to achieve a cameo-like effect. The pieces are then glazed and fired again. The technique developed at Sèvres in the mid-19th century; it was most effectively practiced there and at the Minton factory by Marc-Louis-Emmanuel Solon.