An unusual micromosaic plaque, Jean Salandri, Rome, second half of the 19th century

Several members of the Salandri family are recorded as mosaicists active throughout the nineteenth century, among them Liborio Salandri who was entrusted with the restoration of the mosaics in the basilica di San Marco in Venice in 1810 (Domenico Petochi, I Mosaici Minuti Romani dei secoli XVIII e XIX, Rome, 1981, p. 71). Cesare Salandri was active in the second half of the nineteeth century (see for a example a small gilt-metal mounted casket set with micromosaic panels signed Cesare Salandri, sold Bonham's, 4 July 2007, lot 24); the Salandri studio is also included in the list of major micromosaic workshops active in Rome published in Murray's 1864 Guide to Rome: M. Barberi, G. Barberi, Boschetti, Civilotti, Gabrini (...), Rinaldi, Salandri, and Verdejo (J. H. Gabriel, Micromosaics, Private Collections, Brian McCarthy, US, 2016 p. 36).

Whether the Salandri family member who signed the present lot in French was perhaps working in France for a certain period of time remains subject to future research; in favour of this theory would, however, be the fact that the micromosaic still life seems to be based on early nineteenth century French still life paintings, such as those by the Flemish painter Jan Frans van Dael who had a prosperous career in Paris during the Empire and the Restoration periods.