Featured Gatierre, Danbiere & Other Mysteries

Because the topic keeps popping up in the Cameo Show & Tell thread, as well as in another one started by me, Numismatic Fraud Mystery , I decided to try to pull it together in one place. I don't know anything other than what can be inferred from the items themselves.

For some reason, the manufacturer of these very high quality fakes chose not just to leave products unmarked but also, on some of them, to add touches that are deliberately misleading as to the name of the company and the country of origin. At the same time, they did it in such a way as to hint at the deception.

Most or all of the art on their faux marbre plaques is copied from works in other media. I cannot say all only because I have not yet found an original for some of them. Everyone is invited to add to any part of what is going to be a tangled thread; finding the artwork is an area where I can use all eyes. I have never seen a patent or registration number on any item.

I think it is possible to trace the development of these sophisticated resin items, starting with the cameos. I will have to write this in installments.

 

LA'GATIERRE My guess is that these are the first attempt at turning this polymer into jewellery. The relief is lower, the lines less crisp, the color unnatural.



If you were not utterly fooled into thinking the cameos date to 1832, you might still think they were something like a promotional or commemorative item. While there is a town in the Loire called La Gatière, the Internet knows no perfume or perfumerie with this name & politely suggests that perhaps you really meant gatterie, a cake shop. When you scrutinize it more carefully, you realize that apostrophe has no business being there and you might, as I do, think a genuine French spelling would more likely be La Gattière.

The fact that the settings are sterling silver, or at least are marked as such, also leads people to assume the cameo is 'genuine', whatever that means to the individual.

This cameo also came in this setting. We will be seeing it again.

 

Do you have the records of the Cosa Nostra,Mafia,Gypsy's,etc.,etc....... If not lots of luck finding anything positive.

 

Still monochromatic, but very high relief, better design, various colors.


This one is most like a direct descendant of the LA'GATIERRE design. Besides the color, there is the empty space in front of the face. Most I have seen have horizontal scoring on the background.

 

If this were the worst thing La Cosa Nostra ever did, the world would be a better place. Whoever was behind all this paid great attention to detail & had a great sense of what would be appealing.

 

That is the way they work things,use professionals to make the products at a reasonable cost and then misrepresent the product for a good profit.

 

The pebbled frame was not the only one used.



Sometimes it is possible to see how these cameos would look when the edges are not hidden.

 

Spoiler Alert

I was just looking a section on ebay with a number of "fake"/reproduction items and this piece came up on the bottom of the page.... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Paris-Exposition-C1889-Marble-Relief-Plaque-By-T-P-Danbiere-Gilt-Wood-Frame/203008171989?_trkparms=aid=111001&algo=REC.SEED&ao=1&asc=225074&meid=5f02927c60cb4939a80105e1ffe93ef0&pid=100667&rk=1&rkt=2&mehot=none&sd=203008171989&itm=203008171989&pmt=0&noa=1&pg=2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042

 

I should get you to edit your post to add 'Spoiler Alert' to the start of your post. Plaques with that design are what link the whole line of faux marble with the cameo products & will be taken up in a future post. Thanks for keeping your eyes open. I didn't know about the [spoiler alert] frogs until they were found as part of the Numismatic Fraud investigation.

If anyone finds something else that can be linked to this manufacturer that is not a cameo, a trinket box, a plaque in faux marble or faux bronze, or a frog, I'm not sure I want to know!

 

Pheeww... So much of them! Bravo Bronwen for putting all this together
Sure, the more "lookers", the more pieces and perhaps infos will pop up!

 

Bronwen, are you just looking to solve the 'Gatierre' and 'Danbiere' mysteries or will any resin scam do? If the latter, here is a 'hand carved out of natural turquoise' cameo, set in sterling silver, of course:



Signature on the back!

 

I'm just getting started; there is so much more to go.

I have very little hope of ever getting to the bottom of who made these, but I may be able to compile & publish most of their output, or enough representative samples, that this will become someplace people will find when researching their 'treasure'. The numismatic fraud thread already comes up in searches. Right now prices have became ridiculous for what is essentially plastic and misinformation is far more prevalent than more accurate characterizations. This is a fight for truth and justice, folks!

My intent was that the thread be about this specific family of resin work, but it can't hurt to add in others, & maybe someone will turn up others that can be linked to these. I did not always recognize the Gatierre cameos as of a piece with their more accomplished sisters.

 

I am sure the ones that don't have that ugly staining can be quite deceptive.
If I come across one, I will let you know.

 

The coloring of these cameos appears so naturalistic and the image has such strong appeal, it is understandable why they so often are mistaken for what they appear to be and why, even when correctly described as resin and despite not being set in precious metal, it is not unusual for them to sell for $90 - 100.



At the time of this writing, the asking price for the Volupté compact shown below is $2,500, understandable if you believe the completely inaccurate description of the cameo given in a collectors' guide, which even notes the incongruity of such a cameo on a relatively ordinary compact body.



The origin of this touching image may have been this design by Henryk Winograd:



There are some noticeable technical changes between the previous cameo, whom I think of as Nouveau Lady and this lady with her pet bird. Now the pieces are in two colors, like genuine sardonyx & sardonyx shell cameos; the background layer of the 'shell' version even has subtly shaded color like natural shell can have. They can be so convincing that this one was able to sneak into an auction lot along with other shell cameos:



The orange cameos can be distinguished from actual shell by their yellowish figures, flat backs and, when visible, thick edges.

 

The material used for the background of the lady with her bird is more crystalline and less resilient than that employed for Nouveau Lady, whom I have never seen with any damage. The two-tone cameos are quite hard, but brittle, almost like hard candy. When fractured, it is not a jagged break.



The material of the figure can craze without the layer below suffering damage:



Some of you may be asking what connects the lady and her bird to Nouveau Lady and when is this Danbiere going to show up? Stay tuned.

 

Yes, I've seen the bois durci hypothesis. Did not realize it had become rampant. I probably would have let it slide as one more misidentification of the material but now it will have to have at least one more mention.

Funny you wrote D'Anbiere. I have never seen it written on any of the pieces that way, but it had crossed my mind that, after La'Gatierre, it may have been under consideration.

 

@Bronwen , Thanks for all the great information. I love learning more about antique jewelry!

 

I keep thinking 'une bière', but carry on.