THERE are many ways to decorate a vase and the most obvious is to paint or print on to the porcelain or pottery body, which appears to be the case with the vase illustrated below. However, in this instance, it is actually made out of metal and the decoration is called cloisonné.

Basically, the body of the metal vase is decorated with coloured glass beads which when fired form the decoration.

To stop all of the colours merging into one, the outline of the floral design is in metal wire, which ensures the pattern remains distinct. These wares were produced mainly in Japan at the end of the 19th century.

There is a tendency to think that, as they are metal, they are very robust.

This is a fallacy as the decoration is very fragile and can bruise very easily. Once damaged it is nigh on impossible to repair.