Overview
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, enamelling was a popular medium for women artists. With their ‘dainty’ fingers, women were believed to be ideally equipped for such pursuits. Miniature portraits like this one were often made, as were plaques based on plant and animal motifs.
To make such a portrait, the artist painted a metal surface with coloured pastes of powdered glass. (The powder is called ‘flux’ or ‘frit’.) After the paste was dry, the work was placed in a furnace and heated until the glass powder melted. In doing so, it fused to the metal base, forming the hard, shiny surface known as enamel.
Enamelling is an ancient technique. The earliest known enamelled objects are from Cyprus during the Mycenæan period, around the thirteenth century BC. Many centuries later, in medieval times, objects used in religious ceremony were often enamelled. Some of these were chalices (wine cups), crosiers (staffs carried by bishops), and censers (in which incense was burnt).
By the time New Zealand artist Annie Buckhurst made this miniature portrait, enamelling had become popular once again as part of the renewed interest in medieval church art. This was known as the Gothic Revival, and it linked strongly to the Arts and Crafts movement.
Early in her life, it became obvious that Buckhurst was good with her hands. A dentist in her hometown of Christchurch suggested that she go to the United States to train in his trade, but Buckhurst’s father wouldn’t allow it.
Instead, at the age of fourteen, she decided to go to art school. There she specialised in metalwork, and won awards for silver and enamel work, as well as embroidery. In 1913, 1914, and 1915, she won scholarships in applied art, and in 1914 she obtained an excellent pass in ‘advanced plant form’ for her art teacher’s diploma.
She began tutoring in 1915, and pursued her career as artist and teacher determinedly. She lived in an era when it was considered wrong for a wife to work, and marriage put an end to her professional activities six years later. However, she is known today, like Chrystabel Aitken and Mollie Miller Atkinson, as one of New Zealand’s finest workers within the Arts and Crafts style.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database.