French Blue Opaline Egg-Shaped Trinket Box with Ormolu-Style Gilt Mounts

French blue opaline glass trinket box in classic egg form, mounted with a gilt metal band decorated in a repeating foliate pattern. The box opens at the centre and separates cleanly into two matching bowl-shaped halves.

The colour is the point here: a saturated, even turquoise-blue with the soft opacity typical of French opaline glass. This type of glass was made to be noticed — it catches light without shouting and was used for decorative objects rather than utility.

The gilt mounts are executed in an ormolu style, drawing on French 19th-century ornamental vocabulary and continuing into later revival production. The form sits somewhere between table ornament and functional container — exactly where these pieces were intended to live.