The Advantage of Colour to Sell Your Products

Nothing makes an object stand apart from it's neighbours in a shop window like adding colour!

A frame style clock in 18ct gold, engine turned in a sunray lines and spaces design, with four-colour gold mounts.

Frames and clocks of this type provide an economical way to create a large range of products with minimal investment by using the "mix-n-match" principle.

This idea was used more than a hundred years ago by Fabergé in their production of frames. They always claimed never to produce the same article twice. But nonetheless, they actually used almost mass production techniques to produce their frames. I was told about this by a man whose father had worked in St Petersberg for them.

Several basic shapes would be chosen in different sizes.
For each shape, several different designs of outer and inner bezel would be produced using tooling.
Then a selection of swag designs would be included, stamped.
The enamelled part is made from a simple plate of flat silver or gold with no recessing and no borders to the engine turning to save money.
Quite a few different engine turned designs would be employed, done in batches of ten or so.
Maybe ten different colours would be used.
Eventually the goods were assembled on what was almost a production line.

One man would be making bows, another would be cutting joints etc. A production run might consist of 200 or more frames - there would be perhaps 5 colours, 5 border patterns, 5 engine turned patterns, 5 bezel designs, two choices of stones on the bezel, 5 bow designs, 5 swag designs and some left off, you get the picture? Nothing at all done in less than about 40 off. I am not saying that everything Fabergé did was done this way, simply that this was a technique they used that can be emulated in a more modern way.

An enamelled Photo Frame, engine turned sunray basket with four-colour gold mounts.

By combining these variations, literally hundreds of different frames were mass produced and sold as individually made items never to be repeated by the Fabergé company. Not surprisingly, the combination of taste, style and price made the company a resounding success, employing around 750 people in its heyday, many of whom worked in a large factory at St Peterburg.

Modern manufacturers can take significant advantage of combining engine turning with colour to produce large ranges of goods from only a small number of different components, imaginatively mixed together. This can work particularly well for things such as writing instruments and other items, particularly with limited editions.

A silver corkscrew, recessed around the tube and enamelled over a spiral pattern. On a tube such as this, or a pen body, the recessing can be easily done by cnc lathe when the component is made. For one off items and small quantities it may be worth asking us to recess on the engine turning machine.

Silver clock with Jaeger le Coultre Baton Movement set in front of the dial. The case was recessed and enamelled with dark blue stripes and transparent white enamel (flux) over fine sunray lines.