Micromosaics

Comprising as many as 1,400 intricately patterned pieces of glass per square inch, Roman micromosaics were prized by world travelers in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These pictorial souvenirs featured copies of famous Renaissance and Baroque paintings, the likenesses of Italian monuments, ancient ruins, and bucolic nature and animal scenes.

After the mid-nineteenth century, the quality of micromosaics became inferior with much larger glass tesserae and poor artistry. Cristen has an extensive collection of fine micromosaics awaiting their modern settings.