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352 - Snuffbox with ‘Pliny’s Doves’ ROME, c.
See original version (French)

Estimate CHF 2,000 - CHF 3,000

Description

Snuffbox with ‘Pliny’s Doves’ ROME, c. 1790–1805 Workshop of Giacomo RAFFAELLI (1753–1836) Circular snuff box, the lid set with a Roman micromosaic composed of very fine polychrome glass tesserae (smalt and smalti filati) set in traditional mastic, with the gaps filled by a coloured finishing material; probably on a copper plate measuring approx. 73 mm, depicting ‘Pliny’s Doves’. Three doves are gathered around a gilded basin filled with water, set against a deep midnight-blue background. The birds’ plumage is rendered using very fine, elongated tesserae, oriented to follow the contours of the feathers, whilst the basin is constructed from curved rows of ochre, yellow and orange-brown tesserae. A fine border alternating red and white tesserae frames the composition. Unsigned. Illegible writing beneath the lid. H. 2 cm Diam. 9 cm Diam. 7.3 cm (micromosaic) For similar lots, see: - Sotheby’s, London, 9–15 July 2021, lot 47. - Christie’s, European Noble and Private Collections, London, 14 December 2011, lot 578, a study dedicated to Giacomo Raffaelli. The absence of a signature means this work cannot be attributed with certainty to Giacomo Raffaelli himself. However, this is not incompatible with it having been produced in his workshop: Christie’s notes, with regard to the artist, that “He sometimes signed his work on the copper backs of his mosaics”, meaning that some signatures may be concealed when the plate is mounted in the lid of a box. Two small cracks on the sides of the lid; the lid has a dent. Pliny’s Doves are among the emblematic subjects of late 18th-century Roman micromosaics. The motif derives from the famous ancient mosaic discovered in 1737 at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, now housed in the Capitoline Museums in Rome and traditionally associated with Pliny the Elder’s description of a work by the Greek mosaicist Sôsos of Pergamon. Giacomo Raffaelli was one of the leading figures in the development of modern micromosaic in Rome during the last quarter of the 18th century and returned to this subject on several occasions. A panel from Pliny’s Doves, signed and dated 1779, is held at the British Museum; other autograph versions are known from 1783, 1793 and the early 19th century. This micromosaic bears a particular resemblance to Raffaelli’s works due to the great finesse of its smalti filati, the gradation of greys, whites and browns in the plumage, the use of elongated tesserae whose orientation contributes directly to the modelling, as well as the midnight blue background and the small red and white border around the edge. A version signed ‘Giacomo Raffaelli Fece Roma 1793’, measuring 73 mm in diameter, features precisely this colour scheme and decorative arrangement. The variety of tessera shapes is particularly striking here: tiny quadrangular elements for the background, long glass rods for the feathers, and tesserae arranged in concentric curves to create the volume of the bowl. This pictorial use of glass, in which the very orientation of the tesserae contributes to the representation of materials and volumes, characterises the high-quality Roman works of this period.

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Auction time 09/08/2026 at 2:30 PM

Ref. : SYG9

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352 - Snuffbox with ‘Pliny’s Doves’ ROME, c. See original version (French)

352 - Snuffbox with ‘Pliny’s Doves’ ROME, c.
See original version (French)