WILLIAM NEAL 1931 Birmingham Guilloche Green Enamel Box In .925 Sterling

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...

Rectangular snuffbox in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with two-tone translucent stripes fired enamelled on guillochè and fine hand-engraved on all sides, French Empire Napoleo...

Oval curved snuff-box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold-plated with translucent fired enamels on guilloché, above and below. Modern contemporary style. Size cm. 4.5 x 6.5 x 2.3. Weigh...

Art Deco English Sterling Silver Cigarette Box, 925 Silver, London, 1931 Origin: United Kingdom (London) Date: 1931 Maker: Stamped with hallmarks including London assay, date letter...

Blackington Sterling Silver and Guilloché Enamel Box with Mirrored Lid, Circa 1920s A luminous sterling silver and guilloché enamel bo...

Giorgio Salimbeni Gold-Plated Sterling Silver and Enamel Pill Box with Miniature by Renato Buccioni, Florence, 1978 Exquisite round, domed pill box in 925/1000 sterling silver, gold...

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

Round favor box with lid in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and hand-painted miniature of a bouquet of flowers in Art Nouveau style. B...

An absolutely stunning enamel box, French in origin with the boars head mark for solid silver (minimum 800/1000). The goldsmith's makers mark is also present, I think GB but a little...

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...