champlevé, technique for the enamel decoration of metal objects. It was used by the Celts and Romans and employed by medieval metalworkers for jewelry and reliquaries until the 14th cent. Champlevé is produced by hollowing out parts of a design in metal and filling in the hollows with enamel. The technique has been revived by 20th-century craft-workers.

Decorative enameling technique. The process consists of cutting away cells or troughs in a metal plate and filling the depressions with pulverized vitreous enamel. The raised metal lines between the cut-out areas form the design outline. Champlevé was practiced in the Celtic areas of western Europe in the Roman period. It flourished in the Rhine Valley near Cologne and in Belgium in the 11th–12th century. The most notable enamelers were Nicholas of Verdun and Godefroid de Claire.

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