Italian Sterling Silver

Round table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fired enamels, with “paillons” in pure gold on the upper circle, fine floral miniature fired enamelled by the painter Ren...

Rectangular photo frame in gold plated 925/1000 sterling silver with fine engraving of fruit (cherries) fire enamelled with polychrome colours, contempo...

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...

Rectangular photograph frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and hand-painted miniature of flower garlands in the late 19th century...

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...

Table Box Green in French Empire Louis XVI style Sterling Silver Salimbeni. Table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel inserted in a very fine ha...

Large shaped frame for photographs in gold plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent two-tone fired enamels on guillochè and rich friezes in the French Empire Louis XVI style ...

Large shaped photograph frame in gold plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with borders and laurel frieze in Louis XVI French Empire style. Exte...

Rectangular photo frame in gold plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent fired enamels on two-tone striped guillochè. In a contemporary style. Ground glass and velvet panel. ...

Fountain p en in 925/1000 sterling silver and 14 kt gold nib, with fire-enamelled Art Deco design. Diameter mm. 11, length cm. 14. Silver weight gr. 53. . Designed by Giorgio Salimbe...

Octagonal table box in 925/1000 sterling silver with fire-enamelled Art Deco design. Dimensions diameter cm. 15.8 high cm . 8.2. Weight gr. 974. Designed by Giorgio Salimbeni for Cartier USA in the 1980s, inspired by objects designed by Louis Cartier around 1920 and manufactured in Florence in various specimens, also in parure with other objects and in different colors, in the headquarters by the Salimbeni firm with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for withstanding numerous high-fire enamelled firings at about 750°<800° C. 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...

Snuffbox Rectangular for table with rounded corners in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with very fine fire-enamelled miniature hand-painted by the painter Renato Dainelli repro...

Shaped oval photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on sunburst guillochè and Louis XVI French Empire style ornaments. External dimensions c...

Rectangular table box with rounded corners in 925/1000 sterling silver brossè with very fine hand engraving, also on the sides, of “ramage” with leaves and bunches of grapes fire-ena...

Square photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver with fire-enamelled Art Deco-style geometric design. External dimensions cm. 14.5 x 14.5 internal cm. 9 x 9. Weight gr. 260. Designed b...

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

Rectangular table box with rounded corners in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with two-tone translucent fired enamels with guillochè stripes and hand-engraved motifs. George V E...

Shaped letter opener with rectangular base in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guillochè. Base cm. 7.5 x 15.5 long letter opener cm. 21. Weight ...

Rectangular table frame for oval photo in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent two-tone fired enamels on guillochè and with various ornamen...

table box in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with edges with fire - enamelled stripes and upper frame with insertion of paillons in pure gold and beautRectangular iful fire-enam...

Butterfly-shaped photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent polychrome fired enamels on hand engraving that imitates the veins of the wings. External dimens...

Oval photograph frame, shaped edge in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with fine hand engraving, interspersed with black fired enamel in Baroque style. External cm. 7.4 x 11.3. W...

Rectangular frame with oval photo in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel with two-tone stripes on guillochè and hand engravings. External dimensions cm...

Rounded rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with beautiful fire enamelled miniature hand painted by the painter Simone Dainelli inspired by the paintings of Boris Vallejo, in fantastic contemporary style, with hand-engraved frame. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1967 and manufactured in Florence in numerous 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 high-fire 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...

Square table frame for round photos diameter cm. 7, in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent two-tone fired enamels on guillochè, with bord...

Square table frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with edges in French Empire Napoleon III style. External cm. 18 x 18, internal c...

Octagonal wedge box in 925/1000 sterling silver with black and white colors fire enameled in Art Deco style. Measures 7.8 x 7.8 x 6 cm. Weight gr. 281. Designed by Giorgio Salimbeni ...

Oval table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fired enamel, with “paillons” in pure gold on the upper circle, fine miniature fired enamelled with an image of “fox hunti...

Large Italian sterling silver footed centerpiece bowl with gold washed interior and ribbed design. The bowl is in great condition. Maker's mark 800 silver . Minor wear consistent wi...