A jewelled gilt and silvered metal casket, Jules Wièse, Paris, circa 1862

rectangular with canted lid, in 'Romanesque' style, each green leather panel overlaid with openwork silvered metal leafy scrolls containing figures and animals, the gilt-metal cagework mounts applied with cabochons of various semi-precious and hardstones including carnelian, amazonite and almandine garnets, surmounted by four heliotrope balls surrounding a central rock crystal knop, the whole on four dragon supports and lined with blue velvet, pearl pushpiece, the rim stamped: Wièse / Paris, with maker's mark for metal nearby and on lid

(?) London International Exhibition 1862

J.B. Waring, Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International Exhibition 1862, London, 1863, vol. I, plate no. 100, illustrated in colour and described as 'a coffer in oxydised silver, about eight inches long, designed in the Romanesque style after an ancient model'.; Silke Hellmuth, Jules Wièse und sein Atelier, Paris, 2014, pp. 74/75 (illustration of plate from Waring and comment)

Would benefit from professional cleaning. The silvered metal elements are probably electrotypes. Some wear to velvet, silvering on reverse and to gilding on mounts; otherwise in good condition.
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In 1862, the goldsmith and jeweller Jules Wièse, born in 1818 in Berlin and formerly a pupil of the German court goldsmith Johann George Hossauer, was awarded a Medal of Honour by the International Jury of the Exhibition in London for his precious metal works. Contemporary illustrations of the exhibited objects include a casket identical to the one in this lot. Wièse, who today is considered as one of the most talented silver and goldsmiths of the 19th century, had become chef d'atelier of the renowned Parisian goldsmith Froment-Meurice as early as 1839. Five years later, he registered his own maker's mark and in 1855, he exhibited under his own name for the first time at the Paris Exhibition. In his artworks, Wièse often combined different historical and stylistic influences and created sought-after jewellery and objets d'art in the neo-gothic, neo-renaissance or the romanesque styles, as was the case for this casket. In Masterpieces of Industrial Art and Sculpture at the International Exhibition 1862, London, 1863, plate 100, J. B. Waring mentioned that the casket was based on an 'ancient model'. This could refer to an inspiration drawn from Italian ivory caskets such as the 11^th or 12^th century Morgan casket in the MET in New York (17.190.241). Wièse's artworks are also often characterised by an oxidation of the surface in order to obtain a darker, pseudo-tarnished surface associated with old age.