Antique French Gilt Decorated Clear Glass Lidded Dressing Table Box, 1880

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Hand-applied gilding accentuates the classical outline of this heavy clear glass dressing table box. Designed with a cylindrical container and … Read more Hand-applied gilding accentuates the classical outline of this heavy clear glass dressing table box. Designed with a cylindrical container and a stepped, flat-topped lid, the piece is crowned by a moulded, multifaceted knop finial decorated with a gilded star rosette on its upper face. The thick-walled glass body provides substantial weight and clarity, reflecting light cleanly through the polished surfaces. Ornamentation follows the Louis XVI Revival taste popular across France during the late nineteenth century, around 1880. Encircling both the lid margin and the upper rim of the base is a continuous band of running laurel foliage framed by twin gilt fillets. Suspended below this upper frieze are tied ribbon bows and delicate circular foliate wreaths spaced evenly around the circumference of the vessel. The lift-off cover seats neatly upon the flat rim of the lower bowl. On the base, a hand-painted gilt numeral '24.' indicates a workshop assembly or gilder's mark, a standard method used in French ateliers to keep matched lids and bases paired during finishing. Measuring approximately 13.5 cm in diameter and 9.5 cm in overall height, the proportions suit keeping vanity items, cufflinks, or trinkets. Preserved without metal mounts, the box relies entirely on the precision of the ground glass contact surfaces. The bright gilding remains clear and legible across the exterior motifs, showing only slight softening to exposed edges, while the underside of the base displays typical age-related contact scratches from domestic tabletop use. See less