A micromosaic on a box, two doves on a table, 18th century

Round burrwood box featuring an assembled micromosaic set in a gold frame. It depicts two doves with outstretched wings facing each other, perched on a finely carved table covered with carmine-colored drapery and resting on a bed of tiny tesserae on which a book is drifting. The midnight-blue background enhances the main scene, surrounded by a border of white tesserae.The smallness and regularity of the tesserae is one of the recognizable signatures of the works produced in Rome. At the end of the work, the surface is levelled by sanding and polishing, then waxed in order to melt the interstices as much as possible and glaze the whole.
Late 18th century Roman work.

Micromosaic, the technique of assembling tiny fragments of glass to form complex images, is executed with great precision. It enjoyed its golden age in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The first exhibition of this art in reduction was held in the workshops of Giacomo Raffaelli (1753-1836) in Rome in 1775. At the time of the Grand Tour, the European aristocracy was visiting Italian cities, particularly Rome, and contributing to the birth of the workshops where these travel souvenirs in micro-mosaics were produced. By 1820, there were more than 20 workshops in Rome.