Sterling Silver Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

Exquisite Austrian Art-Nouveau Tabatière and Matchbox, Around 1900: Rectangular silver cigarette case in a smooth finish, curved, with hinged lid, coloured enamel painting on the top...

A fine and impressive antique Victorian English sterling silver and enamel envelope style vesta case; an addition to our silver case collection This fine antique Victorian English s...

Rounded rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling Silver gold plated with beautiful fire enamelled miniature hand-painted by the painter Renato Dainelli of a basket with flowers, in ...

The front of the case exhibiting an exquisite hand painted panel depicting sprays of irises in shades of lavender, royal blue & green, set against a radiant white enamelled machined ...

Rounded rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver with fine hand-painted fire-enamelled miniature depicting the Head of the Statue of Liberty in New York. Dimensions cm. 5.5 x 7 x 1.8. Weight gr. 105. Designed by Giorgio Salimbeni in 1975 in Art Deco style and executed in numerous specimens, at the specific request of the firm Tiffany & Co., in Florence in the headquarters of the Salimbeni firm with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for sustaining numerous high-fire enamelled firings at approximately 750 < 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...

Round snuff box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fire enamel on guilloche and hand-painted miniature of stylized blue bird, late 19th-century Viennese Art Nou...

A fine and rare 19th century sterling silver snuff box made specifically for the Great Exhibition of 1851, held at the Crystal Palace in Londo...

Hallmarked in London in 1821 by Christopher John Buckler, this handsome, Antique Sterling Silver Snuff Box, is gilt, and features a cast "Topers" scene on the lid of three gentlemen ...

An impressive Antique Victorian solid Silver Table Snuff Box with an ornate chased border and an engraved horse racing scene on the lid. The rectangular Box has a decorative shaped b...

Antique 19th century Victorian novelty solid silver table lighter, unusually shaped as a "guard tower", realistically modelled with simulated brick-work, door and archers windows, wi...