Loewe’s presentation at Salone del Mobile 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Loewe

Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest furniture and design fair, wrapped up today after six days in Milan. Among the 2,000 exhibitors, spanning 20 pavilions, were a handful of fashion brands, including Loewe, The Row, La DoubleJ, and Marimekko, which launched a line of bedding with the artist Laila Gohar.

Loewe began exhibiting at Salone in 2016, the same year the Loewe Foundation launched its €50,000 Craft Prize. In their debut, they exhibited oak and leather furniture; in later years, they showed blankets, baskets, weaving techniques, stick chairs, and artist lamps. At this year’s fair, the brand staged a dramatic exhibition—the last organized under the leadership of Jonathan Anderson—of contemporary teapots by 25 artists from 10 countries, including Simone Fattal, who crafted a black marbleized body with a woven handle; Edmund de Waal, who added a silver handle to his signature sleek white forms; and Naoto Fukasawa, who covered his teapot in dainty white flowers.

Of course, Anderson’s commitment to craft and crafters is well known, along with his particular affinity for ceramics. Inspired by his grandfather, a ceramics collector, he built up his own collection, gravitating toward U.K. artists Lucie Rie, John Ward, Jennifer Lee, and Sara Flynn. He even incorporated ceramics into his designs for Loewe’s A/W 2020 collection, sending dresses with ceramic breastplates down the runway. Now that he’s taking this passion for craft to Dior, we’ll see whether his successors at Loewe, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, will continue his commitment when they start tomorrow.

Francesco de Poletti, 19th century micro-mosaic, mounted on a gold-and-ruby box by Nicolas Lecoufle. Photo: Courtesy of Koopman Rare Art

These days, when tourists go to Italy, they come back with Gucci or Prada. During the Renaissance, noblemen on the Grand Tour brought back micro-mosaics, inlaid on small boxes or jewelry. I saw this intricate art form on display during my recent trip to TEFAF Maastricht, in grand scale on a tabletop and small scale on gold boxes at Koopman Rare Art—including one particular micro-mosaic on a bejeweled box, measuring just 9.5 by 6.6 centimeters and available for £80,000.

The mosaic technique originated in ancient Rome (think Pompeii), but didn’t become “micro” until the 18th century, when two mosaicists in the Vatican’s workshops shrunk down the tesserae, or tiles, that were used to compose the designs. These tiles measure only a few millimeters in size, and were made from glass, enamel, or stone. Their oblong shape makes them look like tiny brushstrokes. And the process of actually assembling the mosaics, as you can see from this video, is quite laborious.

The micro-mosaic designs depicted religious themes, historical events, or famous works of art. The example at Koopman from 1809-19 shows the three Fates and Father Time. Collectors of these objects once ranged from members of the imperial Russian court (one of the best collections of micro-mosaics in the world is at the Hermitage) to the Pope himself.

The value of the object at Koopman is determined, in part, by the quality and maker of the mosaic. In this case, we’re talking about Francesco de Poletti, one of the most important of the Roman micro-mosaicists; others include Giacomo Raffaelli, Antonio Aguatti, and Gioacchino Barberi, though the works are usually not signed. Perhaps the best contemporary practitioner is Maurizio Fioravanti, who creates works like this one (already sold to a discerning buyer). The other part of the value comes from the gold box it’s mounted on—the box in this instance bears the goldsmith mark of the Parisian Nicolas Lecoufle, who surrounded the mosaic with a border of rubies and decorated the sides with an intricate frieze of bluebells and foliate.

Micro-mosaics often appear on the market in various forms at various price points, ranging from a few thousand to a couple hundred thousand dollars. Mosaic plaques, like this 18th century example by Raffaelli, can be set per the buyer’s preference—perhaps on a pendant or box, or as wall art, like this pair of portraits handcrafted in the Vatican Mosaic Studio in the 20th century.

The studio still exists today, to conserve the Basilica mosaics and produce works for sale. The website says it can be visited by appointment. Or, if you’re in London, go to the V&A to check out the Gilbert Collection, another of the world’s best collections of micro-mosaics.

Paul Signac, Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise) (1905), estimated at $7 million. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s

A hundred and twenty years after it was painted, and 72 years since it entered a French private collection, this Venice scene by Paul Signac will be offered at Sotheby’s with a $7 million estimate. Signac painted Venice scenes between 1904 and 1908. A companion to the Sotheby’s lot is the moodier Entrance to the Grand Canal, also from 1905, now held by the Toledo Museum of Art. The Sotheby’s painting was acquired the year it was painted by artist and collector Gustave Fayet as one of a group of six paintings by Signac. The artist then borrowed the work for his seminal 1907 exhibition of ports and landscapes from around Europe that included six other Venice scenes.

Now, let’s look at what happened in Paris last week…

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