A 1960s rosewood (kingwood) box decorated with .925 sterling silver and enamel combination in the form of a heron by the Italian silversmith Ottaviani, from Recanti, Italy. The work is most certainly by Gherardo Ottaviani (1930-1980), the father of the company.

OTTAVIANI Kingwood and Silver Enamelled Jewellery Box, Italy, c1965

£355.00

Quantity

The box is in very good condition with minimal enamel losses and one very small wood chip on the right side of the heron's head. A stunning piece. If you have any questions, or you require additional photos with the silver box, do not hesitate to contact us.
At the age of 17, while still a teenager, Gherardo Ottaviani won his first competition for the supply of silver cutlery to the Italian Navy. But when the inspectors found out his age, and that the company was actually a small basement in his parents' house, they cancelled the contract to great personal and social humiliation. Disappointed by this experience, he opened his own shop in Recanti, starting to make religious objects in great demand for the pilgrims in the towns nearby. All were marked with 'Creationi Ottaviani." When later the Vatican banned precious metals in any object of religious nature, he started to engage in the processing of jewellery and jewellery boxes to great national acclaim. The prestige soon came and, in 1966, Gherardo Ottaviani earned a honourable mention at the Vicenza International Exhibition and the Great Hercules prize, particularly for his embossed, chiselled and enamelled silver boxes, bracelets and costume jewellery. The heron example is part of those models, and I believe that the object was made somewhere around 1965.