This exquisite box was entirely hand-carved and chased around 1996. It is the product of Brush's study of ancient gold work, during which he discovered, or reinvented, the lost art of gold granulation. The process had been revived, after having been lost since the fall of the Roman Empire, by a handful of jewellers in Italy in the 19th Century. The restoration of the famous Campana collection of ancient jewellery at the hand of the Castellani family gave these skilled Roman goldsmiths unprecedented access to Etruscan and Hellenistic jewels. In their studies they rediscovered the process of floating minute gold balls in mercury to form perfect spheres. The taste for Neo Classical jewels having waned in the 20th Century and these Italian family businesses having dissolved, this fascinating technique was lost once again. That is, until Daniel Brush’s moment of illumination in the Victoria & Albert Museum, faced with an ancient gold bowl, and his subsequent quest to harness the unique light of gold.

This palm-sized objet de virtue evokes thoughts of a treasure chest, buried at the bottom of the sea for centuries, reappropriated by the elements, scintillating with all the intricate secrecy of a Faberge egg.