Fabulous antique French Napoleon III to Belle Epoque era Grand Tour style souvenir jewel casket, a lovely little jewelry box with eglomise (reverse painted) glass scene of The "Jardin de la Fontaine" in Nimes, France! The Sanctuaire de la Fontaine (Sanctuary of the Fountain) is an ancient site in the city of Nîmes, France. A probable place of worship of the first human settlement around the source, this site is located today in the heart of the Jardins de la Fontaine. We recently acquired around twenty of these wonderful little French souvenir caskets and will be adding them in the coming weeks. This one with very thick beveled glass panels on all sides and the larger top with the scene transferred & painted on the back side.
"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, as you can see. Original inner tufted blue silk or satin base pad/lining with a bit of tattering toward the front. See pictures for all measurements.
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