Departmental Museum of Bresse - Domaine des Planons

The collection of Bressan enamels of the Ain Department

The Ain Department currently owns a public collection of Bressan enamels. This world-class collection is displayed in Bresse's museum Domaine des Planons. This collection is remarkable due to its rarity, its scientific quality and unusual aesthetic. It contains historical artefacts, which carry the history of a fine craft and its craftsmen, and the practices and uses which bind enamels so closely to the people of Bresse. The collection is made up of almost a thousand pieces: around two hundred and fifty items of jewellery, decorative and religious items, one hundred and thirty items used in fabrication, more than five hundred unmounted enamelled plaques and around fifty documents.

This travelling exhibition is based on the temporary exhibition and its bilingual catalogue Emaux de Bresse, joyaux du quotidien, presented during the 2014 and 2015 seasons of the departmental museum of Bresse. The collection aims to create a platform for Bressan enamels, which, until now, have remained largely unknown and uncelebrated outside of the Bresse region. We hope to present several different aspects: historical and technical, anthropological and social. Contrary to the common conception of Bressan enamels, that they were produced mostly during the 19th century and worn in a rural context, the diversity of the objects and the expense of their creation indicate that they were designed for a variety of uses and particularly appealed to the wealthier section of society.

Bressan enamellers from Bourg-en-Bresse

Time and reasons why this knowhow appear in Bresse are hypothetical. When Bressan enamels were at their height, from the second half of the 19^th century to the beginning of the 20^th century, some of the jewellers of the town centre of Bourg-en-Bresse knew each other. The most important jeweller’s shop are manage by Bonnet , Fornet and Decourcelles who follow one another. Each workshop had its director, sometimes an enameller, with a team of specialised craftsmen under him. Expertise, tools and secret techniques were sometimes kept jealously within families, and passed from one generation to the next, or taught to apprentices and workers who would go on to establish their own businesses. This period in enamelling history sees an abundance of paillons, cabochons and enamel beads, the style of the time.


After the First World War, the sales of Bressan enamels began to peter out, as enamels came to be seen as luxury goods. Their competition, costume jewellery, used simple materials for a striking effect. It was sold at low cost, and appealed to the public due to its quality and diversity. Nonetheless, Debost and Jacquemin enamellers continued to exercise their craft, followed later by Jeanvoine enamellers. They took pride in the expertise they managed to maintain and sought to adapt their work to the ever-changing demands of their clientele. Enamellers were craftsmen, managers, businessmen and public relations representatives all rolled into one. The style became simpler at this time, leaving the colors of the enamel and the brilliance of the paillons.

A knowhow between tradition and modernity

The production of Bressan enamels depends on a delicate balance of tradition and modernity. The cultural integrity of the craft and the continuing knowledge of technique are kept alive through the transmission of ideas, sketches and tools, pieces made by predecessors, information on different stages of production and their order, correct handling and inside knowledge. However, a high level of specialisation coupled with a historical continuum bring with them certain limitations. The slightest break in communication can lead to loss of knowledge or technique, as in the case of the unjointed sphere.


Jeweller-enamellers are also continually confronted with the ever-changing demands of their clientele, and must regularly find new styles, new aesthetics and new ideas in order to maintain sales and sustain the craft. The high costs of equipment such as punches (300 euros) limit the possibility of making regular changes to the shapes of enamels; in order to change a style, the setting or the form of the jewellery is altered, rather than the enamel itself, or sometimes new objects are created, such as champagne bottle corks and badges. As for the material itself, its colour can easily be changed, and a wide colour palette is possible. New tones; whites, greens, yellows and coral, mostly opaque are placed next to reds, Bresse blues and dark, translucent greens, old-time favourites. Encouraging young jewellers to take up enamelling remains a crucial issue.

Bressan enamels shine at World Fairs

The heyday of Bressan enamels coincided with a moment of widespread enthusiasm for universal expositions. Exceptional international platforms, these events were the perfect place to get a product known and to affirm national and regional identity. They gave artisans, industrialists and other inventors a chance to promote and popularise their work to the world scale. Bonnet, Fornet - a clever salesman - and Decourcelles played the game and got their creations into the limelight, setting up booths which resembled their shops in Bourg-en-Bresse and they are rewarded for their talent by awarding medals.


Enamelled objects the world over were brought for exhibition. Artisans from places as far flung as Limoges, Sèvres, Murano and Japan met, influenced one another, learnt new techniques, extended their commercial links, and even worked together to create exceptional pieces. They attracted a prestigious clientele, such as the Shah of Iran, and even gained the attention of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Thanks to the initiative of influential people, probably from the institutions, Bressan enamels began to be seen as a key part of a regional and folkloric identity created by the people of Bresse themselves. This was an image with which they identified, and with which they were content to be identified even outside of Bresse; an image which was retained by the many visitors of the 19th century, and was then diffused through history.

“Joyaux du petit monde”

The uses, types of object and owners of Bressan enamels are many and diverse. Bressan enamels can be used to express and serve various different values: wealth, cultural references, the fashions and practices of a time, and society’s economic, commercial or artistic activities. By taking these values into account, enamellers can develop a clientele.

The affordability of enamels put them within the reach of comfortably-off farming families. They were a good substitute for precious stones, and were bought in the form of jewellery or decorative objects. These items were given as special gifts, which were used to mark religious and civic rites of passage, and seem closely linked to their establishment and preservation. A cross pendant would be given at a child’s first communion, a suitor would present his beloved with a necklace en esclavage, mothers and daughters passed on their jewellery from one generation to the next. Enamels were often worn on these occasions. The image of the lady farmer in her Bressan enamels which appears on post cards and on tourist souvenirs may lead to believe that this was a frequent sight. We must bear in mind that the purpose of this image is more to express local culture than to accurately represent local practices.

Bressan enamels and the society life

The uses, types of object and owners of Bressan enamels are many and diverse. By acquiring items often bought, ordered or given as presents, and worn on special occasions, owners can assert their knowledge of culture and the latest trends. By taking these values into account, enamellers can develop a clientele. The level of complexity of the technique used reveals the level of wealth of the owner, be it meticulous filigree work on portrait frames, or an abundance of paillons or beads on a pendant. As for the style of the piece, it is most often in keeping with the style of the time. On certain belt buckles and brooches we find the butterfly symbol of the Art Nouveau movement.

Modest in price, yet culturally relevant, Bressan enamels quickly became the privilege of the urban upper and middle classes. This can be seen in the vinaigrettes (bottles for smelling salts), opera glasses, dance cards, chatelaines or cufflinks worn to events of varying levels of importance, whether held in a private residence or in public places such as the theatre or opera. This was the ideal place to make an impression on one’s peers, by showing off personal wealth and taste; a lady’s style, a gentleman’s elegance. It was in these highly visible environments that artists such as Anna Pavlova, the local bourgeoisie and the upper class elite became important elements in the spread of Bressan enamels, which were even occasionally given as official presents.

Religious Bressan enamels : devotion and liturgy

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries, enamel was frequently used for two major categories of religious objects: those used in the Catholic mass (chalices, ciborium, monstrances, crosiers etc.) and devotional objects (rosaries, holy water fonts, statues of saints, paintings of historical scenes, etc.) These objects, enamelled in an ornamental and varied style, were both symbolic and catechetical. In this neo-Gothic context, which involved a revisiting of the aesthetic of the medieval period, a new interest in religious Limousin enamel brought about a revival of enamel. Enamel work was intrinsically linked to religious ornamental gold work, in which some artisans specialised during the 19^th century. The collaboration of these two groups continued into the 20th century.

This was the case of Amédée Fornet. He used Bressan enamels and made the golden filigree to decorate the crowns of the Black Madonna and the Infant Jesus worshipped at Notre-Dame church of Bourg-en-Bresse, and worked with Lyon goldsmiths such as Armand-Calliat to create the main altar of this co-cathedral. Enamellers from Bourg worked for significant religious sites in Ain. They created pectoral crosses for the bishops of Belley and the priest of Ars, which are, highly unusually, decorated with interlaced filigree with little enamel plaques. They may have used Parisian and Limousin painted enamels to decorate small devotional objects such as holy water fonts and reliquaries.