Antique German Victorian to Edwardian era Grand Tour style souvenir jewel casket, a lovely box with eglomise (reverse painted) glass scene of "Koblenz"! We recently acquired several of these wonderful little French souvenir caskets and will be adding them in the coming weeks. This one with very thick beveled glass panels, four panels around the sides and the larger top with the scene transferred & painted on the back side.
Koblenz is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multinational tributary and was established as a Roman military post by Drusus around 8 B.C. Its name originates from the Latin "confluentes", meaning "(at the) confluence". The actual confluence is today known as the "German Corner", a symbol of the unification of Germany that features an equestrian statue of Emperor William I. The city celebrated its 2000th anniversary in 1992.
"Eglomise" is the term applied to the back-painted glass panels in these old French souvenirs. Most of them date 1800s, though they were made up through about 1910 in this manner, too. Later ones often have a photo set in instead. The early ones are our favorites, sometimes a screened ink-line like drawing that is then hand colored, or sometimes a full miniature painting original, all worked on the back side of a panel or convex plaque of glass. There are sometimes open spots left and a final step is application of thin mother of pearl panels so that the windows shimmer with pearlescent light, or architectural details are pearl - you can see how fun those are. I'm listing a whole collection from this genre, one at a time
Very good condition. Possibly a tiny nip or two to the glass panels but no larger chips or cracks. The eglomise scene is in great shape with a bit of age darkening in rear right corner, it's a hand tinted print with a few mother of pearl accents. Original inner tufted red silk or satin base pad/lining, somewhat aged as you can see. See pictures for all measurements.
