The artisanal production of enameled advertising and signage signs remains, but to grow, it is focusing on design, art and architecture.
Last month at Café La Rue - with its lampshades in green enamel - enamel connoisseur Jan De Plus, with his lecture for Etwie and Brusselfabriek, posed the twofold question: 'The enameled advertising board n the Brussels enamel industry: the end in sight?' So the answer to that is twice no. "When Tanguy Van Quickenborne took over the company in June last year, the buildings - covering more than four thousand square meters - on Verheyden Street and Ninoofsesteenweg had already been sold to real estate developer Belgian Land," says business manager Vincent Vanden Borre. "The closure of the enameling plant, a limited liability company since 1923, was imminent.
"Emaillerie Belge is a Brussels company and we want to keep it that way."
The decline of the Belgian enamel industry cut to size and folded in the tôlerie, degreased and stained before being enameled. We see Anne, one of the employees, spraying the liquid enamel evenly onto a plate. In addition to experience, this requires feeling. Apparently, the best results are still obtained manually. Enamel consists of mineral crystals (the so-called enamel frit) which, together with pigment, binder and water, are ground into a liquid paste by means of ceramic balls. This is done in mills, some of which will be recovered.
Émaillerie Belge still buys all the raw materials itself, allowing it to make up to 770 colors - Coca-Cola's red and other trade secrets - ten times more than most enamels. Vanden Borre: "The price is explained by the labor-intensive process: it's not just sticking a drawing into a copier and waiting for the enamel plate to come out." An Devroe in the 1950s when billboards were restricted by law.
"The price is explained by the labor-intensive process: it's not just putting a drawing into a copy machine and waiting for the enamel plate to come out."
Émaillerie Belge also continued to produce lacquered signs and PVC screen prints to keep its head above water. The previous owner, Benoît D'Ydewalle, had, however, refocused on the core business of enamel since 1992. However, the plant is far too large and is also inefficient and outdated. You can keep everything as it is, but then you find out that street signs are also made by low-wage countries in Eastern Europe." "The contract is almost finalized for a site of 1,500 square meters for production and 400 square meters for offices and museum (for now, the new location will not be announced, ed.).
We are taking advantage of the move to optimize the production process and invest in new ovens and dryers. The charm and finesse of both the company and everything we realize is maintained. Signage and beer advertising remains the base, but to grow, we are also playing the markets of design, art and architecture." Bookkeeper Laurence De Roy sees it with the "two new, young fathers of the company": "We are not dinosaurs. It's time for designers to rediscover enamel as a contemporary material."
Current commissions include street signs for Drogenbos, signage in the Algiers metro, advertising signs for La Trappe beer, as well as the lining of Brussels tunnels and collaborations with designers Muller Van Severen and Damien O'Sullivan and architect Glenn Sestig. In Knokke, the company's name appears on street signs. "Émaillerie Belge is a quality brand," says Vanden Borre: "Enamel is weather- and scratch-resistant and maintenance-friendly - you wash graffiti off. It is also the only material that is completely UV-resistant. Enamel can handle temperatures down to -60°C e n +450°C, which makes it interesting for stoves and barbecues. Powder enamel may have the same look, but not the same feel." The Red of Coca-Cola "With enamel, color layer after color layer is applied and fired, and you can feel that, it has something sensual," says Jan De Plus. "
If you want to see another piece of industrial archeology, rep to Verheyden Street." Seeing the heart of production, the furnace, glowing orange, with that vibrating air, it feels like a reminder of the Manchester of Belgium as Molenbeek was once called. The more than 40-year-old kilns must be preheated for eight to 12 hours to reach a temperature of 810 to 830°C, depending on the color to be baked. In another department, foam rises high above a number of bubbling tanks.
"The decline of the Belgian enamel industry accelerated in the 1950s when the number of billboards was restricted by law."
"The decline of the Belgian enamel industry accelerated in the 1950s when the number of billboards was restricted by law" Vincent Vanden Borre Managing Director of Advertising Orders. The enameled billboards and strip boards that now hang crisscross the factory will come into their own at the new site in a public space. COLOR LAYER. With enamel, layer after layer of color is applied and fired. COLOR LAYER. The enameling plant can make up to 770 colors itself, including Coca-Cola's signature red.
The artisanal production of enameled advertising and signage signs will remain, but to grow it will focus on design, art and architecture. The enameled advertising signs and strip boards that now hang crisscross the factory will come into their own at the new site in a public space. There were so many enamels in Belgium in the 1920s that Émaillerie Belge was given only the approval number 359. A meter-high billboard for Gevaert Ciné-Film still belongs to Émailleries de Koekelberg.
Unique to Belgium and a must for collectors, the approval number and year of production are listed on the signs themselves. Jan De Plus is a collector of enamel signs and has written books about them (Beer of 800° (Weyrich, Neufchâteau) is still available in Dutch). Last year, he curated the exhibition Amai Email! at the MIAT: "Before plastic made its appearance as a material, enamel was ubiquitous. Pots and pans, stoves and stoves, baths, beer dishes, ashtrays and inhalers. Brussels had many local enamellers: Busath (Schaerbeek), Delplanque, Howoco and the only discontinued Van Durme-Michiels (Anderlecht) in 1995, Forémail (Forest), Bruxelloise (Sint-Agatha-Berchem), and so on. Along the canal was a popular location because of the supply of steel from Charleroi. With mass production, advertising became important, which led to tremendous growth in enamels during the interwar period.
Émaillerie Belge gave a thirty-year guarantee, but in the volatile fifties and sixties that was no longer an asset." In his book Émaillerie Belge. From 1920 to 2012 (Weyrich), De Plus tells the story of the Brussels business from the first advertisement in 1921 for Émaillerie Belge on Chaussée de Ninove 160, specializing in enamel letters and consulate and embassy plates. The owners pass in review, as well as the brosseuses (women), furnace operators and draftsmen (men). Once employing nearly 140 people, the company is now down to eight, "a family," according to the bookkeeper. Émaillerie Belge also had its own advertising agency, Emaille graph on Dansaert Street.
"We are working with artist Michaël Borremans to figure out how to enamel in 3D," he said.
Capturing the imagination of the owners are Albert Van Cotthem, official pilot of the Royal Family, with experience in the family business in Gosselies, which was at the cradle of Belgian enamels, and Maurice Costermans, of the art forge at 170 Chaussée de Ninove, who managed the company from 1925 to 1958. It was he who expanded Émaillerie Belge to Verheyden Street. A fine phrase from the 1923 articles of association reads that in addition to manufacturing, the purpose of the SA is the study and experimentation of enamel processes. Anno 2017, Vanden Borre says with much enterprise, "We are working with artist Michaël Borremans to figure out how to enamel in 3D."
By An Devroe
