A pair of solid fourteen carat gold, hand painted vitreous enamel cufflinks depicting the four vices of man; horses, alcohol, women and gambling. A exceptional quality and wonderfully detailed example based on the theme of gentleman's vices which were depicted on a series of items during the Victorian period, all the way through to the current day.

They are a double-sided pair of cufflinks connected by solid gold chain link, with each panel depicting one of the vices. Each of the four panels are beautifully hand painted miniatures. They would have been painted with the finest of paint brushes to allow for all the detail to be illustrated. They are then fired to achieve the hardened glass finish. There are very few competent enamelists surviving today. This makes pieces like these somewhat of a lost art form. The use of vitreous enamel itself is also a technique that is being consigned to the history books. Some of the old pigments are now banned due to toxicity, and new methods such as cold enamel, a cheaper and easier to apply material, have become more widespread in the jewellery community today.

Unlike many versions of these cufflinks that are on the market today, these are made by famed American jeweller; Tiffany & Co. As one would come to expect, these are no ordinary gold cufflinks. Observing the images, it is easy to see the quality of the panels, and the thickness. No expense was spared when making them with each panel being of substantial weight and being 18.5mm thick of solid gold. Each panel is hand stamped 'Tiffany & Co.' and '14k'

The overall condition is excellent. They are presented in a later Tiffany & Co. navy blue leather cufflink box. Made in American, circa 1940's.