Making Memories
My Italy trip seems so long ago now. We had so much fun, saw so many amazing sights and made so many great memories.
Of course I did pick up a few treasures along the way and I have at last added them to the store.
A stunning antique French silver albertina chain. It features a beautiful hand painted enamel and silver slider, 5 stands of foxtail chain, fancy ends, a strong albert clip, extension link chain and a large bolt clasp. A gorgeous chain to add to an antique jewellery collection. Found in the antiques fair in Arezzo, the focal point of this gorgeous chain is an exquisite, ornate silver slide featuring a hand-painted, sky-blue/turquoise enamel plaque adorned with delicate pink roses and soft green foliage. The slide gracefully unites multiple strands of tightly woven silver foxtail chains, held perfectly in place by decorative spacer bars.
Vintage micro mosaic pendant with 3 drops and featuring a floral design in pretty colours on a contemporary heavily gold plated bead chain. The pendant is made from brass and glass.
I actually bought this gorgeous piece from an antiques fair in the UK, not Italy. The seller had a number of pieces from the same micro mosaic collector and were all in really good vintage condition.
Micro mosaic pieces were made for tourists in Italy during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Micro mosaic is the art form of using very small cut pieces of glass to create intricate designs. Giacomo Raffaelli is considered to be the founding father of micro mosaic jewellery. He presented his first selling exhibition of micro mosaics at his studio in Rome in 1775. Many artists followed suit and created beautiful micro mosaics as souvenirs for the wealthy who visited Italy. This trend was popular from the 17th-19th centuries.
I found this 935 silver and guilloche enamel propelling pencil in an antiques fair in Tuscany and the colour immediately jumped out at me, I knew if would make a gorgeous pendant.
The tip is stamped 935 and the enamel is in excellent condition with no cracks or chips. 935 silver is of a higher purity than sterling silver and was predominately used in Germany, Switzerland and Austria in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Guilloche enamel is a process of layering a translucent coloured glass enamel over an engraved metal pattern, allowing the brilliant geometric texture underneath to catch and reflect the light.
These three gorgeous treasures can be found in the New Arrivals Collection in the store now.
