Cigarette Case Romantic couple Art Nouveau Sterling Silver Salimbeni

Rectangular table cigarette case with rounded corners in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with beautiful miniature fire enamelled and hand painted by the painter Beatrice Mellana reproducing a "still life" by the Flemish painter Willem Claes Heda. Dimensions cm. 5.7 x 9 x 1.7. Weight gr. 174. Designed by Franco Salimbeni in 1969 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 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...

Rounded rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fine hand-painted fire-enamelled miniature depicting a female face wearing Art Nouveau style clothing, hand-...

This is a rectangular, gold-plated sterling silver pill box, exquisitely decorated with translucent enamels over a guilloché (engine-turned) pattern and featuring a hand-painted flor...

Gold-Plated Sterling Silver and Enamel Pill Box with Floral Miniature by Romano Buccioni for Salimbeni, Florence, 1980 Charming shaped pill box in 925/1000 sterling silver, gold pla...

Antique Continental Silver & Enamel Cigarette Case embellished with a gorgeous Enamelled Image on the Front of the Case. This Image shows a subtly erotic image of a woman putting on ...

Sterling Silver Box with Enamel Design This square-shaped box with chamfered corners is made of 800-thousandths pure silver and features an enamel design and gold plating. The lid fe...

An exceptional, fine and impressive antique George V sterling silver and erotica enamel cigarette case; an addition to our diverse range of continental silverware This exceptional antique George V sterling silver and enamel cigarette case has a plain square form with rounded corners. The anterior and posterior covers of this antique silver case are plain and unembellished. This case is fitted with a plain rounded push fit catch, which when released reveals a concealed secondary cover. This hinged push fit cover is ornamented with an impressive erotica hot enamel scene depicting a female figure, partially undressed and bathing. This concealed cover opens to allow access to the hinged compartments. This impressive example of antique silverware retains the original gilt interior. Such concealed antique cases are becoming increasingly difficult to locate. Condition This antique cigarette...

Exquisite cigarette case with Enamel Paing: Hinged silver box with decorated lid, depiction of a young lady situated in her bed in a luxuriously furnished bedroom, Signature 'Reznicek' in the lower right corner. Inner gilding. Ferdinand Freiherr von...