Classical Roman Decorative Boxes

Wonderfully hand-crafted and excellent condition, late 20th century box. This hand-crafted box from mid to late 20th century Italy is made of the most beautiful green onyx. This nat...

An antique Italian Capodimonte embossed dresser box offers lid with hand enameled and gilt classical scene with figures, decorated base with female mask and goats, blue crown "N" mak...

A ‘Grand Tour’ casket This lockable casket is made of English pollarded oak inset with five Italian polychrome micromosaic plaques. Micromosaic is a type of work consisting of thousands of tiny hand-made glass tiles, which are uniformly shaped into strings while at a hot temperature, cooled, cut and then placed by hand into the desired design. The plaques depict various scenes one may have seen while visiting Rome during a Grand Tour of Europe; an event for ‘young aristocrats’ in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Scenes include the ‘Doves of Pliny’ (top); Temples of Saturn and Vespasian situated in the Roman Forum (front); Pantheon and St Peter's Square (sides); and the Colosseum (back). The plaques have been attributed to the Studio del Musaico dell Reverenda Fabbrica di S. Pietro (Mosaic Studio of the Reverenced Work Shop of St. Peter’s) and were likely made in the early-to-mid-nineteenth century and brought to England and inserted into this casket. Studio del Musaico dell Reverenda Fabbrica di S. Pietro was established around 1576 to create architectural mosaics for the new basilica, and was later recognized as a distinct entity in 1727, supplying extraordinarily detailed views of Rome to the new industry of ‘tourism’, in the form of tabletops, tablets and jewellery, just as these plaques exemplify. The 2nd century AD floor mosaics in Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli, near Rome, were discovered in 1737, inspired the top scene of the ‘Doves of Pliny’. The side panels depicting the Pantheon and St Peter’s Square were inspired by the period’s local architecture, which is significant, as today the Pantheon has been since altered. As history tells us, in the early 17th century, Gian Lorenzo Bernini was commissioned to design and add two Baroque bell towers to the Pantheon, which was originally constructed in the 1st century BC under the orders of Marcus Agrippa...

The lid and sides with micro mosaic panels with Roman views: St Peter's basilica and square, the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the Temple of Vesta, the Temple of Vespasian in the Roman for...