Art Nouveau Silver Guilloche-Enamel Box with Delicate Rose Painting, circa 1900

Art Nouveau sugar bowl of oval, rounded form, standing on four rocaille feet, rocaille decoration in relief on the wall and hinged lid, sculpted...

Simple, elegant silver centerpiece in elongated form with vertical walls on four flared feet, the straight long sides slightly protruding and the semi-circular sides overhanging, cir...

Two elegant silver centerpieces on a high, round, stepped base with a floral relief band, on four divided feet with palmette frieze, on top of which four slender fluted columns arran...

Decorative large five-light silver candelabra on a round base, with embossed and chased geometric and floral decor. Finest work of simple elegance by the master Josef Kurzweil, ac...

Oval shaped silver platter in a smooth, simple design with a profiled edge. Branded by the Diana's head mark, the Viennese official hallmark 1872-1922 for 800 silver Manufactu...

Wide silver bowl in a trapezoidal shape standing on four appliquéd feet, one-sided handle in the extension of two relief flower stalks with flowers an...

An absolutely stunning large antique Viennese sterling silver pill box made from a hefty gauge of Austrian silver. All sides are decorated with a white guilloche enamel showcasing...

An absolutely stunning enamel box, French in origin with the boars head mark for solid silver (minimum 800/1000). The goldsmith's makers mark is also present, I think GB but a little...

A silver box with Guilloche, Industria Argentina A silver box with wooden interior. The box is decorated with guilloche pattern. Silver 925 (purity 925/1000) and marked with Indus...

Rectangular table box in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with very fine hand-engraving Baroque style on the lid, fire-enamelled in 2 colours. In the center an ancient oval plate...

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...

A wonderful Art Nouveau period silver pot pourri box with a detailed pierced and repousse swan lake scene, the two swans sitting within the entwining duck leaves. The hinged lid opens to reveal a interior. Hallmarks: London 1907 William Comyns Retailed: Finnigans Ltd Manchester Weight: 102g William Comyns were a London based manufacturing silversmiths who traded from around 1858 until the 1930s. The firm was founded by William Comyns when he bought the business of Robert Tagg (founded in 1730) around 1858 and entered his first mark from the original Robert Tagg premises in Soho, London. The business expanded rapidly and the firm moved and gradually took up more and more premises on Beak Street, off Regent Street. They became William Comyns & Son in 1885 when his two sons Charles and Richard joined the partnership. They had a significant impact in the 1880s by producing large numbers of decorative items in silver which were retailed through leading London retailers of the time such as Henry Lewis...