Stunning French Silver & Guilloche Enamel Pill Box

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...

A stunning tall vanity / dressing table jar, probably used for either hatpins or a toothbrush, hence the little cork lining to the interior of the base. The glass is channel cut...

An exquisite Art Deco powder bowl by one of the finest quality English silversmith's, Walker and Hall of Sheffield. The base is made from fine quality crystal with beautiful hand-cutting and a star cut underside. The lid is made form silver-gilt (gold on silver) and is hallmarked for Sheffield 1930. The top is covered with a wonderful blue guilloche enamel, with a good bright patina showcasing the Art Deco engine turned design below. The bowl is lucky enough to have a vintage Swans Down...

A wonderfully handsome and unusual jewelry box in the form of a bow fronted drawers on legs or a dressing table with two solid silver knobs to the fron...

A truly exceptional Art Deco Gentleman's smoking compendium, beautiful quality by the highly sought-after silversmith, Mappin & Webb. This impressive piece stands on four original...

A magnificent large box made from a hefty piece of English crystal with a variety of intricate cutting creating an impressive and truly glamorous piece. The hinged rims are made f...

An elegant French silver tabatière or snuff box, overall decorated with guilloché or engine-turned panels, in a regular wavy pattern creating the illusion of movement. In fine condit...

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 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 box with inward corners in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with beautiful miniature fire enameled and hand painted by the painter Beatrice Mellana depicting the painting "The Turkish slave" by Francesco Mazzola known as "il Parmigianino" (National Gallery of Parma). Dimensions cm. 8.5 x 11.5 x 3. Weight gr. 345. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1965 and manufactured in Florence in numerous specimens with various different subjects, in the headquarters of the Salimbeni company with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for withstanding numerous high-fire enameled 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 box with rounded corners in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with hand-engraved and enamelled Arab-style ornament. Dimensio...