Hand-Painted Sterling Silver

Shaped snuff box in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with fire-enameled stripes and fine oval enameled miniature in center cm. 3 x 4 hand-painted by ...

Rectangular photo frame in 925/1000 silver with geometric design and fire-enameled with Chinese influence style. External cm. Internal 11.6 x 14.6 cm. 6 x 9. Weight gr. 194. Created in Art Deco style for Cartier USA in the 1980s, inspired by drawings by Louis Cartier from the early 1900s. Manufactured in Florence in the Salimbeni company headquarters with completely manual execution by artisan artists with high thickness plate and large reinforcements suitable to support numerous high-fire enamelling firings at approximately 750° < 800° C. It is a new object that has never been used but is considered vintage because it was built more than 20 years ago. The hallmarks struck to the underside of this fine box include: manufacturer's mark: 391FI metal mark fineness:925 Art Deco was also born in France and is the abbreviation of "Art Decoratif". With more decisive and geometric features than Art Nouveau, therefore more evident and "harder", with always contrasting and strong colours, Art Deco spread throughout the world, from Shanghai's China to the under construction New York and in various parts of Europe. Many artists and designers of the time dedicated themselves to the creation of drawings, paintings, objects for personal use and furniture, interior furnishings, entire buildings and skyscrapers, in this new style. Sandoz in Paris, Lalique with its crystals, Puiforcat with its silverware, Erté with its "ante litteram" fashion designs, Tiffany with its table lamps, Louis Cartier with its objects inspired by the Far East (hence the connection with Shanghai). Salimbeni was able to interpret and propose new objects inspired by Art Deco, in precious metals, semiprecious stones and fired enamels, when, exhibiting at jewelery exhibitions in the United States, and more precisely in New York, he made contact with Cartier buyers first, and also with Tiffany later, and for them he created objects in this style inspired by the original drawings of Louis Cartier, obtained from the buyer of the time, but with absolutely different and original designs and interpretations. Many of the objects produced by Salimbeni for Cartier in the United States had taken inspiration from famous Cartier objects belonging to famous people. An example of all is Mary Pickford's set consisting of a powder compact, cigarette case, pill case and evening handbag. 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...

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...

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...

Box Black White and Red enamel is Inspired by drawings by Louis Cartier from the 1920 in Art Deco style and recreated for Cartier USA in the 1976. It is in 925/1000 Sterling Silver. ...

Large photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with painted fire enamels like lapis lazuli stone. Shaping taken from the tiles of the North Door of the Baptistery of the F...

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...

Shaped oval photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè and Louis XVI French Empire style ornaments. External dimensions cm. 13.5 x...

Rectangular box with rounded corners in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with hand-engraved and enamelled Arab-style ornament. Dimensio...

Triptych hinged shaped frame for 3 photographs in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè with borders and ornaments in French Louis XVI Empi...

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. ...

Heart-shaped rounded frame with oval photo in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè. With hinged silver-gilt foot engraved in Empire style. ...

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...

Oval photo frame inserted into a harp-shaped object, in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guilloché inspired by a model created by Peter Carl Fab...

Shaped frame for 2 photographs in sterling Silver 925/1000 gold plated with translucent fired enamels on guillochè and hand-painted floral miniatures. Viennese Art Nouveau style seco...

Oval frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with two-color translucent strips fire-enameled on guillochè and hand-engraving and with French Empire Napoleon III style ornament...

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 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...

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 photo frame in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guillochè, with French Empire Louis XVI style border and rich ornamentation around th...

Round box with Swiss musical mechanism (music box) by Maison Reuge. In 925/1000 sterling silver with black and white fired enamels in Art Deco style. Diameter cm. 7.4 total height cm...

Sterling silver / porcelain wood stove miniature. The main structure was made of sterling silver while the central body is hand painted porcelain. Some pa...

Small shaped frame for 2 oval photographs in 925/1000 sterling silver gold plated with translucent fired enamel on guilloche in Art Nouveau style. External dimensions cm. 5.2 x 7 int...

Round shaped box Made in Italy Silver Gilted 925/1000 with translucent enamels on guilloche with hand painted floral miniatures and gold paillons The Miniatures are hand-painted on a usually white homogeneous enamel base. The same colored glazes are used, but ground much finer, which are mixed with special oils to form an infinite palette of colors. The paint must be gradually dried on electric stoves...

Smooth round 925 sterling silver box. The lid was modeled to be able to apply a Limoges porcelain, subsequently hand painted in polychrome with a female figure picking flowers. On ...

Picture Frame Black high relief is in 925/1000 sterling silver . Picture Frame Black high relief has black fired enamels. Picture Frame Black high relief has fine high relief engravi...

Rectangular table box in sterling silver 925/1000 gold plated with very fine hand-engraving Baroque style on the lid, fire-enamelled in 2 colours. In the center an ancient oval plate...

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...

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...