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Vintage Porcelain Grand Piano Trinket Box — Hand-Painted Roses & Raised Gilt, Reticulated Keyboard Panel

$36.00 Only one available

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Mid-Century (1940s–1960s) Gilt, Porcelain / Ceramic Very Good
HDRB-VR-0006
A little grand piano rendered in cream porcelain — lid and all — standing on three curved cabriole legs. Lift the piano lid and you've got a spot for rings, earrings, and the small things that go missing. Hand-painted pink roses wind across the top and sides, framed in heavily raised gold scrollwork that you can feel under a fingertip. The front carries a pierced panel that stands in for the keyboard and music rack, so light passes right through it.
  • Form: Miniature grand piano with a lift-off lid and three slender cabriole legs
  • Decoration: Hand-painted roses with raised gilt scrollwork and gold-trimmed lid rim; motifs repeat on the lid, both sides, and the tail
  • Front panel: Reticulated (pierced) porcelain echoing the keyboard and music rack
  • Material: Glazed porcelain with genuine fired gold decoration; plain white glazed interior
  • Size: 7" long × 6" wide × 4.5" tall
  • Mark: Base bears a two-arrow mark in blue with the model number 7287A stamped below
  • Era: Reads as mid-century decorative giftware
Condition: Very Good. Softening to the gilt along the lid rim and edges and light wear to the gold on the feet, with a few faint age flecks in the interior glaze — no chips or cracks, all parts present, and it displays beautifully.
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Vintage Porcelain Grand Piano Trinket Box — Hand-Painted Roses & Raised Gilt, Reticulated Keyboard Panel

Mid-Century

Hand-Decorated Porcelain Trinket Box

There was a stretch of the twentieth century when a porcelain box shaped like a grand piano was exactly the right gift. Not useful in any strict sense — you already had somewhere to put your rings — but useful in the way small beautiful things are useful, which is to say it made a dresser or a side table feel looked-after. Whole workshops turned these out: little pianos, little slippers, little shoes and settees, each one an excuse to hand-paint roses and lay on the gold. This is a good example of the type. The roses are painted by hand across the lid and sides, the scrollwork is raised gilt you can feel, and the front is pierced clean through to stand in for the keyboard. Someone cared about the details on a piece that didn't strictly require them.

The base carries a two-arrow mark in blue and the model number 7287A. We'd love to tell you who made it, and we won't. That crossed-arrow device started with one European house and was copied so widely over the decades — by importers and factories on more than one continent — that the mark alone can't settle the question. So we'll describe what's there and leave the naming to someone with better proof than we've got. What we can tell you is where it landed: an estate in Woodbridge, Virginia, where it kept its roses and most of its gold through a long and ordinary life on somebody's dresser.

Materials Glazed porcelain with hand-painted pink roses, raised gilt scrollwork, a gold-trimmed rim, and a reticulated keyboard panel; three cabriole feet; lift-off lid.
Care Dust with a soft, dry cloth. Wipe gently with a barely damp cloth if needed; avoid soaking, abrasives, and dishwashers, which can lift the gilt. Handle the legs and lid with care.
From the Research Archives
vintagerose.us Catalog No. HDRB-VR-0006 • July 2026

Specifications

Dimensions
9 × 8 × 6 in
Weight
3 lbs
SKU
HDRB-VR-0006
There's a particular kind of charm in an object that decides to be two things at once. This one is a trinket box that couldn't resist being a grand piano first. The body is cream porcelain, the lid props up the way a real piano lid does, and it all balances on three slender cabriole legs — the sort of little flourish that a factory could have skipped and chose not to. Across the front runs a reticulated panel, the porcelain pierced clean through to suggest the keyboard and music rack. Light slips right through it. The decoration is where someone's hand shows. Pink roses are painted across the lid, down both long sides, and out onto the tail, each cluster outlined and framed in raised gold scrollwork — genuine fired gilt, thick enough that you can feel the ridges of it under a fingertip. Gold traces the leaves and rims the edge of the lid. It's a lot of dressing-up for a box meant to hold rings and small keepsakes, and that generosity is exactly what makes these pieces worth keeping. The base carries a two-arrow mark printed in blue, with the model number 7287A stamped just below it. We'll be straight with you: that crossed-arrow device turns up on porcelain from more than one maker and was widely copied over the years, so we can't put a name to it and won't pretend otherwise. It came to us from an estate in Woodbridge, Virginia, and we're passing it along as we found it — mark and all.
  • Form: Miniature grand piano trinket / vanity box with a lift-off lid and three cabriole legs
  • Decoration: Hand-painted roses with heavily raised gilt scrollwork, gilt leaf outlines, and a gold-trimmed lid rim; motifs repeat on the lid, both sides, and the tail
  • Front panel: Reticulated (pierced) porcelain echoing a keyboard and music rack
  • Material: Glazed porcelain with genuine fired gold decoration; plain white glazed interior
  • Size: 7" long × 6" wide × 4.5" tall
  • Mark: Two-arrow mark in blue with model number 7287A stamped below (maker unconfirmed)
  • Era: Reads as mid-century decorative giftware
  • Provenance: From an estate in Woodbridge, Virginia
Condition: Very Good. The gilt has softened along the lid rim and edges and the gold on the feet shows light wear, both consistent with age and gentle use. A few faint dark specks sit in the interior glaze. No chips or cracks on the body, lid, legs, or pierced panel — the legs are solid, the lid lifts off and seats cleanly, everything's present, and it displays beautifully.

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