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Model of Roman Galley with Gold, Diamond, Sapphire, Emerald, Enamel Rock Crystal

About the Item

A unique and incredible model of a Roman Galley Ship, by Manfred Wild. This is truly an awe inspiring one of a kind piece made by "The Modern Day Faberge" Manfred Wild. The ships haul is made from a single clear hand carved piece of rock crystal. The top of the rock crystal haul is hand-engraved and further etched to appear as if it is made up of individual wooden planks. The ship also consists of two hand carved frosted rock crystal sails, each delicately floating in mid-air and held up by 18-karat gold chains and bars. The ships body is made up of pieces of solid two-tone matte and burnished 18-karat yellow gold, all hand-chased and further chiseled with exceptional detail and the highest quality of craftsmanship. Around either end of the ship are twenty-eight green enamel shields, each with a particular engraved design, and fitted with interchanging bezel-set round sapphire and diamond cabochons. There are two banks of twenty-six Romanesque oars on either side of the galley constructed of solid 18-karat yellow gold. To complete the rowing capacity of the galley, two complimentary solid 18-karat yellow gold and patinated gold rudders can be found on the stern, starboard and port sides. On the stern or back side of the boat is a rounded semi-circular fine-silver dome, decorated in brown enamel with a teardrop shaped emerald finial. A gold winged end is also affixed to the stern with a gold Romanesque finial further enhanced with a gold-beveled circular emerald. Attached to the beveled-emerald are four gold spurs, each with gold-beveled sapphires. Located throughout the galley are over 650 brilliant- cut diamonds, which have been meticulously set in the gold body. The top sail rests on a patinated rod with gold chain-links which attach the sail to the brown enameled stern. An anchor completes the gorgeous Roman galley and demonstrates the care and exceptionally quality of this piece. The entire galley is mounted on a gorgeous black quartzite base set in 18-karat gold. Located in the photos is a document provided by Emil Becker/Manfred Wild explaining every key detail about this Roman galley. There are only two of these Roman galleys in existence. One is in a museum and the other is available for purchase. According to the document there are 28 green enamel-shields on 18-karat gold 750, three sections of brown enamel on fine-silver, 6 sapphire-cabouchons drops at 3.58-carat., 20 sapphire-cabouchons round at 3.79-carat., 1 emerald-cabouchon drop at 1.17-carat., 1 emerald pampel at 2.31-carat., 2 emerald cabouchons 8 mm. round at 4.97-carat., 11 emerald carres facettet at 2.18-carat., 652 diamonds twvsi at 7.06-carat., 8 diamond-rose-cuts at 1.01-carat., and approximately 1,500 working hours to complete this Museum-Quality masterpiece. According to Wild, the galley consists of 1,620 grams of 18-karat 750 gold, in total, and has a total weight of 14,210 grams, including the base. According to Museum Collection, "Manfred Wild is a lapidary artist and jeweler. [He] was born in 1944 in Kirshvayler near the city of Idar-Oberstein. ?? is the eighth representative of the family dynasty that has been engaged in lapidary art since 1630. Being born in [an] creative environment, since his boyhood Manfred was keen on painting. Besides the educational school, he graduated from the Art and Commercial college. When he was rather young, Wild started his own business together with his wife Ute, the granddaughter of Emil Becker - the owner of the well-known stone-cutting workshop. Originally, Wild’s manufacture specialized on creating copies of the well-known art objects, but as the time passed, it fully switched off to the designed items production. Manfred Wild is sometimes called “The 21st century Faberge”. This comparison is quite reasonable. He managed not only to capture the delicate technology of stone and metal processing, but to create his own recognizable style as well, having carefully rendered the best skills and techniques of the greatest artisans of the past. The author’s works are exhibited in the world largest museums and galleries, such as The Gemstones museum in Idar-Oberstein, Harvard museum in Boston, Jewelry art museum in Korea. Besides, Wild’s works are the dreamed exhibits for private collectors all over the world". Germany, circa 1980.
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