of rectangular form supported on C-scroll feet, the hinged cover with bevelled central section with a bud finial mounted with a collared cut diamond, the sides front and cover chiselled and chased with a cityscape with domes and minarets with scroll borders reserved against a pale blue and apple green enamelled ground, the reverse with a stellar medallion flanked by floral sprays emanating from fluted vases

This box belongs to a rare group that were produced by silversmiths of Armenian Anatolia. Very few of these enamelled boxes have survived due to the majority of them being melted down. For a further discussion of this group please see G. Oikonomaki-Papadopoulou Ecclesiastic Art, Athens, 1980. A bevelled box of similar form was sold through these rooms 25 April 1991 lot 1043 and relates closely to a box in the collection of the Armenian Mechitarist Convent of San Lazzaro, in Venice. An Armenian enamelled silver gospel cover signed by 'the unworthy hand of the goldsmith Malchus of the Monasterജy of Garabet in the city of Caesarea (Kaiseri)' and dated 1658 AD was sold through these rooms 11 October 1988, lot 278, displaying the same chiselled silver cityscapes and pale blue enamelling as the current lot. The buildings represented are those of the Holy Places in Jerusalem, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the lid.