Silver box stylized as a book. Venice, second half of 18th century.
Silver, repoussé (with Venice standard mark – Lion of St. Mark – with marks of assayer Zuan Piero Grappiglia, active 1758-1802, another mark by a different assayer, and an undocumented maker's mark, V·L); cast silver; parcel gilt.
Large box, decorated identically on both sides, with a large, impressive relief in rococo style, with rich vegetal patterns including shells and acanthus leaves, cornucopias with flowers and fruit, and large crowns. In the central cartouches – on the front and back – are coats of arms of Jewish families, repoussé into partially-gilt silver plates nailed to the binding. The front binding appears to feature the Uzieli family coat of arms (a pair of lions with a large stalk of grain between them); the back binding features the Trieste family coat of arms (a crowned crane holding a branch in its beak). The binding is decorated in matching patterns, with a pair of original cast silver clasps.
This box was produced by artistic soldering of a rectangular gilt silver box to the binding of a book, probably to house religious books. The box's finishings include striated decorations resembling pages of books, with a concave depression mimicking the rounded interior of the book. The silver hallmarks indicate that the binding and box were probably joined in the 18th century.
Height: 21.5 cm. Width: 16 cm. Thickness: 6.5 cm. Weight: 1000 g. Good condition. Fractures and minor warping. Minor fractures to joints between box and binding. Old soldering repairs near spine. Paper tag mounted on interior: "Comm. Silvio Ferrara, Roma" (an antiquarian of Rome), with handwritten description (Venice 1700).
Reference: Donaver-Dabbene, Argenti italiani del Settecento (Milano, 2000), no. 405.
