Sterling Silver Snuff Boxes and Tobacco Boxes

An exceptional, fine and impressive, rare antique Victorian English sterling silver table snuff/vesta/trinket box modelled in the form of a barrel; an addition to our diverse silverware collection This exceptional and rare antique sterling silver box has been realistically modelled in the form of a barrel. The surface of this unusual Victorian trinket box...

English Georgian gilt sterling silver snuffbox, 1812. Rectangular with straight sides. Cover hinged and tabbed; on top, chased pastoral scene: A shepherd sits under a tree with a lam...

An exceptional, fine and impressive antique Victorian English sterling silver castle top vinaigrette depicting Westminster Abbey; an addition to our collectable box collection. This exceptional antique Victorian sterling silver vinaigrette has a rectangular shaped form. The upper plateau of the cover is ornamented with a rare scene depicting Westminster Abbey in relief, all on a matte background. The sides of the box and cover are encompassed with a continuous band of engraved leaf ornamentation. The underside of this English silver vinaigrette is ornamented with engine turned ornamentation accented with engraved scrolling leaf decoration, incorporating a central vacant cartouche. Both the base and cover are embellished with cast and applied leaf decorated borders to the rims. The hinged silver vinaigrette cover allows access to the original hallmarked hinged, pierced floral and leaf decorated silver gilt grille and original gilded interior. This exceptional box is the finest of its type you could hope to acquire. Westminster Abbey, otherwise known as the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is a Gothic abbey church in London, England. This facility was built in 960AD and has been developed through history, making its grand stature an iconic location for British monarch coronations. Condition This antique sterling silver vinaigrette...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

Nathaniel Mills. A very rare Castle Top Vinaigrette depicting a scarce view of Warwick Castle from the River Avon. Made in Birmingham in 1847 by Nathaniel M...

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 ...

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...

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...