The association International Micro Carving Institute e.V. was founded on 6 December 2014 in Stuttgart, Germany. The founding statute states that the association IMI e.V., registration number 2427/2014M, tax number 99015/32353, is dedicated to the reappraisal of an almost forgotten European artistic period between 1750 and 1830. 

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1. Scientific research, cataloguing and differentiation of the different styles of this carving art and their carvers in the individual countries, to enable regional or personal classifications and to obtain insights for basic criteria for determination on the basis of which the concept of micro-carving with precursors and descendants is to be defined.

In addition, the Institute's research is concerned with identifying historical pieces on the basis of illustrations or descriptions and assigning them locally by means of art tagging. The few images of wearers of these pieces of jewellery with micro-images that exist are also to be researched with regard to historical contexts, such as the Mozart necklace, a gift from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to his wife Constanze Mozart, the complete assemblage of all surviving relief depictions of the British royal family by Stephany and existing battle scenes.

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2. Another goal is the worldwide registration of all existing works of art in museums and private collections and the identification of their masters.  Currently, the quantitative number of jewellery and works of art exceeds 1500 pieces of different qualities and different processing of the material (piece to piece or out of one piece).

 

3. Since some works of art are damaged, the Institute's research has also looked into the possibility of restoring these pieces of art and the restoration itself. Exemplary examples can be found under the item Restorations.

 

4. Due to damaged works, it has become a goal of research to show the exact structure and work steps in the production techniques of the different works. (cf. Diepper cans)

 

5. Another new objective is to apply the still relatively unknown arttagging or artcoding to individual motifs of the micro-pictures, since depicted persons, written records, buildings, harbours or bridges can provide clues to the location of the carved motif.

 

6. Also to try to find out, at least scientifically, some secrets of the production, how one was able at that time to produce such incredibly fine works of art with gravers as fragments or as one piece. Where and in which implementation the limits of the material lay and which techniques were used to produce these masterfully carved works of art.

 

7. The Institute's ultimate goal is to bring these outstanding artists and their works of this rather short artistic period of the Occident back into the general art consciousness, so that this world cultural heritage is preserved, of which we do not even know how they were really produced, before they are forgotten and lost forever for art history and the history of mankind. 

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Over a period of 15 years from 2008 onwards, a simple computer-assisted research system and selection system was developed with the aim of being able to assign the mostly anonymous micro-pictures to individual artists. This system, called VIK (visual identical key) for short, is a visual method for identifying micro-pictures and uses a catalogue of criteria through x-cross selection. Overall, the program differentiates and divides the micro-pictures into worldwide museum holdings and private holdings; furthermore, a differentiation of the holdings of individual countries is made in the letters and number combinations. Furthermore, the program differentiates the individual micro-pictures in size, shape, colour and background and various other criteria. Motifs and specific criteria, as well as direct allocation by dating, literature and signature are further differentiation criteria. Finally, the materials and elaboration of the versions are further criteria for determination and classification. With this program, key words from the existing picture collection, which now comprises over 1500 works, can be selected and viewed and researched directly in the picture for comparison. 

Finally, the Diepper jars from France form their very own classification and catalogue of criteria from triple wreath to single wreath and further designs such as the pearl representation as an enclosure of micro-images. The writing of a reference book on this special subject and a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of all 138 criteria is in preparation. 

Therefore, we ask for your support when you read these lines, to bring this unique European art form, which is unique worldwide, of micro carving and micro pictures in wood, bone and mother-of-pearl, which can be called "almost forgotten art of European art history", back into the focus of the present and art history and to enable a unique reappraisal due to the rather few pieces of an estimated 2200 pieces worldwide, for the benefit of mankind but also for the identification of your own works. 

We began by simply writing to the 21 well-known museums known at the time, based on the literature available at the time and the state of knowledge.  

Should you be in possession of one or more such works of art, you are requested to provide images for scientific reasons so that they can be included in the database. Anonymity and security are guaranteed. In this way, more works could be matched with each other in the future through image matching, up to and including material traces that point to the individual cutting style of each artist and thus create a good basis for further matching possibilities. 

At the same time, by creating the catalogue of criteria, each individual work can be recorded very precisely, thus also enabling conclusions to be drawn for the individual work in connection with the entire collection.

Furthermore, we ask you for financial support if you would like to support this probably currently unique worldwide research and recording. You can also become a member of the International Micro Carving Institute e.V. in order to participate directly in the developments, so that the research can be expanded and carried out more effectively and quickly, a broad public interested in art can gain access and enquiries can be made to institutions, etc.

There are hardly any European art historical epochs with comparatively so few pieces as a closed art and collector's field of the European royal and princely houses. 

At that time around 1760, fortunes were paid for a single piece, as in the case of the Maria Theresa brooch, according to tradition, the equivalent of a small castle. But also in our time at the 2002 auction in Stuttgart, the Nagel auction house presumably sold this brooch with three micro-pictures from the former private Connoisseur collection for € 375,000. (Estimate € 1.2 million) Similar prices were achieved by works for Giuseppe Maria Bonzanigo in the U.S.A ($108000). A ring with a micro-image by the Hess brothers said to have belonged to Napoleon sold at auction in Paris for the equivalent of €34,000.

The Empress Maria-Theresa Duchess of Milan, Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, Archduchess of Austria, Catherine the Great of Russia, King George III of England and Elector of Brunswick Lüneburg and King of Hanover, King Frederick of Prussia, King Louis XVI of France, Charles Emmanuel III King of Saxony and King of France were among the buyers of these works of art at the time, Charles Emmanuel III King of Sardinia and Savoy, Adolf Frederick of Sweden, Prince of Liechtenstein, Christian VII of Denmark and Norway, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Ove Hogh Guldberg statesman, theologian and historian, but also artists such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Esterhazy family in Hungary, Madame de la Baronne, whose father was probably a private advisor to the French king.  private advisor to the French King Louis XVI. King Louis XVI and builder of Chateau de Dampierre, and even Napoleon Bonaparte and many other royal and princely houses in Europe. Later, collectors such as the Rothschilds, Adolphe Maze-Sencier, Rosa Scherer-Gresly (1773-1859), the wealthy upper class of Solothurn, D.M. William Bullock (1773-1849), naturalist, builder and founder of the City Museum in Bristol, owned the Bulloch Collection of micrographs of the same name or Prof. John and Anne Hull Grundy, who bequeathed their extensive collection, including micrographs, to the British Museum. 

Today, more than 1500 micrographs of various sizes and qualities still exist, according to the current status of 31.10.2022 in 21 countries worldwide in 53 museums (approx. 601 copies) such as the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Museum of the Arts in London. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Österreichisches Nationalmuseum in Vienna, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, to name just a few museums (for a complete list, see location and facts), and some private collections and the art market with a total of approximately 987 copies.