Franco Salimbeni Boxes

Shaped snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fired enamel inserted in a fine hand engraving and with round miniature diameter cm. 3.3 hand painted always with fire enamels depicting a sailing ship. Early 19th century Viennese Baroque style. Fine hand engraving on all sides and bottom. Measurements cm. 7.5 x 7.5 x 2. Weight gr. 151. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1976 on inspiration of ancient original artifacts and manufactured in Florence at the Salimbeni company headquarters in several specimens, also with different colors and miniatures, with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slabs and large reinforcements suitable for supporting 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 ivory...

Egg Purple Red enamel is in 925/1000 sterling silver. Egg Purple Red enamel has fired enamels on guilloché has fired enamels on guilloché and design engraved by hand. Egg Purple Red...

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...

Egg Plum enamel is in 925/1000 sterling silver. Egg Plum enamel has fired enamels on guilloché has fired enamels on guilloché and design engraved by hand. Egg Plum enamel is Russian...

Spectacular table box with inward corners in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with translucent enamel fired on guilloche, in Art Nouveau style, and in the center a fine rectangul...

Square table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on sunburst guillochè and Louis XVI French Empire style ornaments. External measurements cm. 12 x 12 x 2.5. Weight gr. 636- Fine oval miniature cm. 3.2 x 4.2 hand painted in tempera on a vegetable ivory plate by the painter Anna Maria Manfriani reproducing a portrait of a Flemish lady...

Octagonal pillbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired asu guillochè enamel also on all sides and monochrome hand-painted miniature on the lid. Dimensions c...

A captivating piece of Florentine craftsmanship, this shaped pillbox is crafted from gilded 925/1000 silver. It features a meticulously hand-painted miniature in the refined Louis XV...

Shaped pillbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with hand-painted miniature in Louis XVI style, second half of the 19th century, and fine hand engravings. Measure cm. 3,5 x 4,...

Octagonal table box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and beautiful hand-painted enamelled miniature by the painter Beatrice Mellana reproducing the portrait of Madame Drouais painted by her husband Francois Hubert in 1785 and conserved in the Louvre Museum. Fine hand-engravings on the sides. French Empire style. Measure cm. 8x8x3.7. Weight gr. 285. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1989 and manufactured in Florence in the headquarters of the Salimbeni company with completely manual execution by artisan artists with thick slab and large reinforcements suitable for withstanding numerous eamelled firings at high heat 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...

Rectangular table box in gold-plated 925/1000 sterling silver with fine hand-engraved ornaments in late Napoleon III Empire style and transparent brown fired enamel over hand-engrave...

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 ...

Round wedding favor with lid in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine manual engraving of flower shoots, fire-enamelled with various colours, in early 1900s Art Nouveau styl...

Round wedding favor with lid in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine manual engraving of flower shoots, fire-enamelled with various colours, in early 1900s Art Nouveau styl...

Square snuff box with rounded sides in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and hand painted miniature parrotlets on flowering branches. Ar...

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...