SALIMBENI Decorative Objects

Large egg on smooth tripod with 8-day mechanical skeletal Swiss movement with alarm, in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guilloché and hand-paint...

Ladies’ cigarette case rectangular convex “olive” shape in 925/1000 sterling silver with black and white fire enamel with Art Deco style design. With “lost” hinge, that is semi-invis...

Rectangular table clock with rounded vertical sides in 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamel on guilloche, in Art Nouveau style from the early 1900s. Hand-engraved e...

Octagonal table cigarette box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold-plated with a fine hand-engraved design and two-colour fire-enamelled with other fi...

6238-7239- Pocket cigarette case with spring button in 925/1000 fire-enamelled sterling silver with beautiful vessel miniature hand-painted by th...

Large oval table box with mechanical musical movement by the Swiss company Reuge S.A. in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guilloché and on fine ...

Square box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè also on the sides. In the center, a beautiful hand painted tempera miniature on a vegetable ivory plate depicting the portrait of a 19th century lady, signed by the painter Anna Maria Manfriani. Dimensions cm. 12 x 12 x 2.5. Weight gr. 618. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1976 and manufactured in Florence in some specimens with various subjects and different colors, in the headquarters of the Salimbeni Company with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for withstanding numerous enamelled firings at about 800° C. Miniature is a very ancient technique which consists of painting works in small proportions. It was born for the decoration of the first letter of the paragraph of the books. Over the years, however, this technique is refined and enriched, then moving on to precious personal items. Hand painted miniatures can be done with multiple different techniques. The most important that we use on our articles are of three kinds: 1) Fire enamel. 2) Water tempera on an ivory plate. 3) Painted on mother-of-pearl. Fire enameled miniatures: On a first layer of enamel generally white or very clear or even transparent suitably liquefied at a temperature of about 750 ° C, the chosen subject is painted using miniature colors which are as many colored crystals, ground and reduced to a very fine, almost impalpable powder washed and purified in distilled water with the addition of small quantities of deoxidizing acids which, diluted with essential oils (usually essential oil of solder), can be mixed to form a palette of colors. With very fine sable hair brushes you draw the subject starting from the perimeter and then gradually adding various layers of color. It is necessary to carry out various firings very often so that the colors harden and are not absorbed by the underlying glaze as, during the subsequent firings at 750 ° C, during liquefaction, it would spread irremediably. Hence the need to form the painting a little at a time, cooking it numerous times. Therefore it is necessary to proceed with numerous retouching, often overlapping different colors that only the painter's experience knows. A beautiful miniature needs from 20 to over 50 firings and is finished when the painter deems he does not have to further intervene. Some colors must have darker tones than others because then, by superimposing the transparent enamel placed at the end of the miniature, they fade. This transparent layer, called “fondant” in jargon, must be smoothed and polished like all other translucent enamel colors. The miniatures with water tempera colors are painted on real ivory...

Rectangular travel photo frame with a hinged booklet, designed to hold 2 photos, made of gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamel on a guilloché pattern in ...

Large shaped photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent two-tone fired enamel on guillochè and with various ornaments in Louis XVI French Empire style and 4...

Indulge in the allure of vintage artistry with this rounded rectangular pill box, exquisitely crafted from 925/1000 gold-plated sterling silver. Adorned with intricate hand-engraved ...

Rectangular box with rounded corners in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on a guilloché with hand-engraved and enamelled ornament in Arabic style. D...

Rectangular table photo frame in 925/1000 sterling Silver gold plated with translucent two-tone striped enamels fired on guilloche and hand-engraved ornaments. Late Empire Napoleon ...

Rectangular photo frame in 9251000 sterling silver gold-plated with translucent fired enamel on guilloché. Modern contemporary style. Blue velvet panel. External dimensions 18 x 24 c...

Ovalized handbag perfume holder in 925/1000 sterling silver with screwed cap and geometric engraving fire enamelled, in Art Deco style, early 1900s. Measurements cm. 1.5 x 2 total h...

Giorgio Salimbeni Gold-Plated Sterling Silver and Enamel Photo Frame, Florence, 1970 Elegant rectangular photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver, gold plated, and richly decorated wi...

Pill Box Yellow floral miniature in Art Nouveau style Sterling Silver Salimbeni.Round pillbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent...

Rectangular shaped photo frame in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamel on guilloché with borders in the French Empire Louis XVI style. External dimensio...

Personal pocket magnifying glass in 925/1000 silver with translucent enamel in two-tone stripes on guilloche and hand-engraved in the French Empire Napoleon III style, second half of...

Rectangular table box with rounded corners in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with very fine hand-engraving, also on the sides, of peacocks with “ramage” similar to tiger tails,...

Rectangular with rounded corners table box for cigarettes in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent enamels on a radial guilloché an...

Four-leaf clover-shaped table box in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with petals in lapis lazuli and red jasper. Dimensions: 8.3 x 8.3 x 2 cm. Silver weight: 175 g. Designed by ...

Square pill box with oval section in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with two-tone translucent fired enamels with guillochè stripes and hand-engraved motifs on all sides. George...

Baroque style shaped table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine hand engraving interspersed with spaces with translucent enamels fired on guilloché and beautiful ena...

Sterling silver gold plated snuff box with translucent fired enamels on guillochè and monochrome blue hand-painted miniatures on five sides and fine hand engravings on all edges. Eng...

quare table frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with edges and ornaments in French Empire Napoleon III style. External cm. 18 x 2...

This important Picture Frame Green is in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated 24 carats. It is rectangular shaped photo frame. The surface of this Picture Frame Green is fired enamel...

Discover an authentic artisanal treasure with this refined oval pill box. Made of gold-plated 925/1000 silver, this piece is embellished with translucent enamels fired on guilloché ...

Table Box wood style and Coral is in 925/1000 sterling silver. Table Box wood style and Coral has transparent brown fired enamel over hand-engraved wood grain. Table Box wood style a...

Pocket pill box shaped like a small egg. Pocket pill box like egg hinged opening. Pocket pill box like egg in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated 24ca...

Pocket photos holder in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with two-tone translucent fired enamels on guillochè, with hand-engraved edges. Empire style Napoleon III. Octagonal hing...

This awesome Table Box Baroque style is in 925/1000 sterling silver. it has a Rectangular shape with hand-engraved intricate design Black and Green color fire enameled. Table Box Bar...

Egg White with blue garlands is in 925/1000 sterling silver. Egg White with blue garlands has fired enamels on guilloché and design engraved by hand. Egg White with blue garlands i...

More than a kilo of sterling silver was needed to create this stunning rectangular tabletop box. Worked with the very complicated guilloche technique, it was then enamelled at high heat with translucent enamel to make the superb workmanship shine through. The fine rectangular miniature cm. 7.5 x 10.7 on vegetable ivory. The small masterpiece handmade by the painter Anna Maria Manfriani reproduces the famous portrait of Empress Eugenia de Montijo, by the painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter. The unenamelled sterling silver parts were then gilded with a 24-carat galvanic bath. In Art Nouveau style, with a “lost” zip, i.e. semi-invisible. Dimensions cm. 15 x 18 x 3.5. Weight gr. 1095. Designed by Giorgio Salimbeni in 1980 and manufactured in Florence at the Salimbeni company headquarters with completely manual execution by artisan artists with a very thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for supporting numerous enamelling firings at around 800° Doña María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina de Palafox y Kirkpatrick, 19th Countess of Teba, 16th Marquise of Ardales known as Eugénie de Montijo was Empress of the French from her marriage to Napoleon III on 30 January 1853 until the fall of the Emperor on 4 September 1870. From July 28 to September 4...

Rectangular photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with hand-painted floral miniature by the painter Renato Dainelli, fire-enamelled on a white background in Art Nouveau...

This is a rectangular, gold-plated sterling silver pill box, exquisitely decorated with translucent enamels over a guilloché (engine-turned) pattern and featuring a hand-painted flor...

A Viennese Bouquet: Art Nouveau Snuff Box by Franco Salimbeni, 1973 This exceptional round snuffbox is a profound homage to the opulent artistry of late 19th-century Viennese Art No...

Giorgio Salimbeni Gold-Plated Sterling Silver and Enamel Photo Frame, Florence, 1970 Elegant rectangular photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver, gold plated, and richly decorated wi...

Gold-Plated Sterling Silver and Enamel Pill Box with Floral Miniature by Romano Buccioni for Salimbeni, Florence, 1980 Charming shaped pill box in 925/1000 sterling silver, gold pla...

A Radiant Octagonal Frame in Guilloché Enamel by Franco Salimbeni This exceptional octagonal frame is a masterclass in contemporary Italian craftsmanship, where the ancient art of g...

Spherical frame for 2 hinged photographs in 925/1000 sterling silver goldplated with translucent fire enamel on guilloché. Modern contemporary style. Sphere diameter cm. 7.5. Weight ...

Playing card suit-shaped box “heart” in 925/1000 sterling silver with red fired enamel in Art Deco style, early 1900s. With lost hinge, i.e. semi-invisible. Dimensions cm. 9.5 x 10 x...

Large octagonal table frame for round photos diameter cm. 7, in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on sunburst guilloche, with Napoleon III French Empire style borders and ornaments. External cm. 17 x 17. Weight gr. 483. Designed by Giorgio Salimbeni in 1978 on the inspiration of previous artefacts from the early 1900s and manufactured in Florence at the headquarters of the Salimbeni company with completely manual execution by artisan artists with a very thick plate and large reinforcements suitable to support numerous high-fire enameling firings at approximately 750 < 800° C. It is a new object that has never been used but is considered vintage because it was built more than 20 years ago. The hallmarks struck to the underside of this fine box include: manufacturer's mark: 391FI metal mark fineness:925 Art Deco was also born in France and is the abbreviation of "Art Decoratif". With more decisive and geometric features than Art Nouveau, therefore more evident and "harder", with always contrasting and strong colours, Art Deco spread throughout the world, from Shanghai's China to the under construction New York and in various parts of Europe. Many artists and designers of the time dedicated themselves to the creation of drawings, paintings, objects for personal use and furniture, interior furnishings, entire buildings and skyscrapers, in this new style. Sandoz in Paris, Lalique with its crystals, Puiforcat with its silverware, Erté with its "ante litteram" fashion designs, Tiffany with its table lamps, Louis Cartier with its objects inspired by the Far East (hence the connection with Shanghai). Salimbeni was able to interpret and propose new objects inspired by Art Deco, in precious metals, semiprecious stones and fired enamels, when, exhibiting at jewelery exhibitions in the United States, and more precisely in New York, he made contact with Cartier buyers first, and also with Tiffany later, and for them he created objects in this style inspired by the original drawings of Louis Cartier, obtained from the buyer of the time, but with absolutely different and original designs and interpretations. Many of the objects produced by Salimbeni for Cartier in the United States had taken inspiration from famous Cartier objects belonging to famous people. An example of all is Mary Pickford's set consisting of a powder compact, cigarette case, pill case and evening handbag. About cooperation Salimbeni and Cartier. Our first meetings with the Cartier USA Company took place through the Giorgini Company, the first "Buying Office" set up in Florence immediately after the Second World War, which had the purpose of bringing together Florentine, and also Italian, producers with American buyers, who especially appreciated the artistic objects still manufactured by artisans who still took inspiration from the Italian Renaissance, using techniques handed down from generation to generation. Mrs. Gina Pestelli, wife of a Florentine retail jeweller, was in charge of contacts with Cartier USA, above all an employee, while her daughter, also for Giorgini, took care of the fashion that in those years was affirmed in Florence with the events of "Pitti ". With their help, we began to supply frames and boxes in sterling silver gold plated with malachite and other semi-precious stones. At the same time, the official buyer of Cartier, Mr. William Smith, began to appreciate and commission the first objects with fired enamels, a process of which we have always been specialists. In 1975 we began exhibiting at the prestigious New York Jewellery Association Show, which we participated in both the February and July editions, for a good 26 years until 2001. In New York in those years the "Art deco style" was still very much appreciated, still mindful of the beautiful early 20th century architecture of the great buildings such as the "Crysler" or the "Empire State". We then began to produce frames, boxes, evening bags, "objets de vertu" and other objects in "art deco style" which were very popular with Mr. Smith who gave us some photocopies of Louis Francois Cartier drawings to reproduce them. Thus, numerous cigarette cases, powder compacts, evening bags, frames and table boxes were created exclusively for Cartier USA which, at the time, had the prestigious "Silver Department" on the first floor of the Cartier store on Fifth Avenue. An evening bag, with matching cigarette case and powder compact, were redone on the design created for a gift given to Mary Pickford at the time. In a 1986 Cartier...

Triptych hinged shaped frame for 3 photographs in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with borders and ornaments in French Louis XVI Empi...

Rectangular photoframe in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamel on a guilloché pattern embellished with a very fine hand engraving. External border in Fr...

Rounded rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with a miniature on the lid hand-painted with fired enamels by the painter Romano Buccioni. English Art Nouveau s...

Frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guillochè. Shaping taken from the tiles of the North Door of the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral ...

Rectangular table box with inward corners in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent enamel fired on guilloche and a fine round miniature in the centre, diameter cm. 4....

Large rectangular table cigar box with rounded sides in 925/1000 sterling Silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guilloche and hand engraving, with two-tone stripes on ...

Rectangular shaped table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine hand-engravings fire enameled hand-painted like lapis lazuli stone and beautiful hand-painted enameled ...

Set of 4 playing card suit-shaped boxes in 925/1000 sterling silver with Art Deco style fire enamels, early 1900s. Total weight 793 g. Designed by Renato Salimbeni in 1951 inspired b...

Silver, gilded and enamelled frame with scroll designs and blue enamels. At regular and symmetrical intervals, ovals with flower motifs different from each other were completely han...

Octagonal table cigarette case in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with external edges and fired enamels inserted in fine designs in the Baroq...

Four-leaf clover shaped table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on a radial guilloché. Modern contemporary style. Dimensions cm. 17 x 17 x 3.5...

Mid-Century Elegance: Rectangular Guilloché Enamel Frame by Renato Salimbeni This refined rectangular photo frame is an exquisite example of the Salimbeni atelier’s mastery, blendin...

Cigarette case in the shape of a packet of long cigarettes in 925/1000 sterling silver with black fired enamel in Art Deco style, early 1900s. With lost hinge, i.e. semi-invisible. ...

Small shaped frame for 2 oval photographs in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guilloche in Art Nouveau style. External dimensions cm. 5.2 x 7 int...

Sterling silver powder case, produced for Cartier, fired enamel manufactured by Salimbeni. Powder case for handbag in 925/1000 sterling silver with black and red fired enamel. Openi...

Large gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver shaped photograph frame with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and rich friezes in Louis XVI French Empire style. External measurements...

Small rounded round frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guilloche, English style, early 1900s. External diameter 7 cm, internal 5 cm. Weigh...

Rectangular table cigarette box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with slightly rounded lid with perforation and fine hand engravings. In the center, a beautiful rectangular mi...