Beautiful Vintage small round micro-mosaic pillbox. Italy 1950s-60s

Beautiful Vintage small round micro-mosaic pillbox. Italy 1950s-60s

Size 2.5 x 2 cm

A nice little container with a hinged lid. Snaps shut. Add to your collection or store tiny treasures!

Micro-mosaics are created from tiny pieces of glass or enamel, called tesserae, which are arranged to form an image. Each micro mosaic is created by a steady and patient hand –a skill set that can be appreciated as these micro-mosaics are usually measured no more than a few inches and each piece of tesserae can be as small as a pencil lead, about 1 mm. It is truly an art form that is a labor of love.

Italian mosaics are an art form dating back to the late 18th century, first found in architecture, that flourished into a thriving industry in Italy. Italy’s majestic buildings of the late 18th century were filled with beautiful mosaic scenes. The most notable of them, St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, features over 10,000 square meters of mosaic. However, after all the construction, the artisans responsible for creating and maintaining them found themselves short of work so they started “side hustles” creating miniature versions to sell to private customers, thus the micro-mosaic jewelry industry was born.

Giacomo Raffaelli is the artists considered to be the founding father of micro mosaic jewelry. He hosted his first selling exhibition of micro mosaics at his studio in Rome in 1775. Many artists followed suit and created beautiful micro mosaics as souvenirs for the wealthy who visited Italy. This trend was popular from the 17th-19th centuries. Sadly, by the turn of the 20th century, micro-mosaics lost their appeal as the Art Deco movement became the trend of the time. Micro-mosaic jewelry can still be found to this day in Italy, sold popularly as a souvenir.