Silver Compact with Enamel, United Kingdom by H. Clifford Davis Ltd., 1953

An Austrian silver and guilloché enamel box, made in Vienna in the 1930s. The box is rectangular in shape and decorated on the lid with...

Silver tobacco box, Marchi Carlo, Italy, Lucca, 1970s Additional Information: Materials: Silver, silver 925* Vintage from the 1950s Artist/Maker: Marchi Carlo Artist/Maker Dat...

Small silver ladies cigarette case with enamel, Europe, beg. of 20th century Additional Information: Materials: Enamel, silver, enamel, gilding, silver 800* Vintage from the 190...

Silver-plated snuffbox, Württembergische Metallwarenfabrik (WMF), Germany, end of 19th - beg. of 20th Century Additional Information: Materials: Metal, silver plating Vintage fr...

The front of the case exhibiting an exquisite hand painted panel depicting sprays of irises in shades of lavender, royal blue & green, set against a radiant white enamelled machi...

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...

This is a really cute and rare find, a 1930's Art Deco compact with the most delightful green and black enamel decoration on a chrome casing . The interior is an engineers delight wi...

An absolutely stunning large antique Viennese sterling silver pill box made from a hefty gauge of Austrian silver. All sides are decorated with a white guilloche enamel showcasing...