Featured Ceramic & Terra Cotta Intaglio? Cameos

The large round white one is ~2¾"; the lion is 2½" X 1⅞". Both frames are the same size. The white ceramic (Italian) are far superior in quality to the red terra cotta (Greek).

I'll confess to being hasty in this combined purchase...a costly lesson a decade ago.

Your comments are eagerly sought...Thanks!

 

You do know the large round one at top of first set is Raphael's 'Madonna della Seggiola'?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_della_seggiola

Debora

 

No, Debora...I did appreciate it as high art, but I'm a country boy, pretty provincial. Perhaps some of the others will prove to be representative of famous artist's efforts. Thanks for the illumination!

 

The first set are plaster impressions of engraved gems. These were collected avidly by people who pretended to some culture but could not afford to collect the gems themselves. They had special cabinets made to hold them, with many shallow drawers.

The most famous purveyor was James Tassie, who collected thousands of impressions from the gems in the collections of people who could afford them. See:

https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/carc/gems/James-Tassie

I recognize a number of the subjects in addition to Raphael's Madonna: Antinous; Paris; some of Giovanni Pichler's work, the Muses Urania & Polyhymnia, La Citerista (the kithara player); the Eros Centocelle; Thorvaldsen's Cupid showing Venus his bee-stung finger; Ariadne.

The second set are a diverse lot & may be made in what used to be known as 'sulphur'. I see some of them tell you who they are. They are not subjects known to me.

 

Thank You!

How very helpful you have been...My sincere gratitude, Bronwen!

Can you say with comfort how old they are? I'm gonna look into the 'sulphur'; it's not a term I'm familiar with in this context.

 

I notice that Tassie lived from 1735-1799. If these types were collected mostly during his lifetime, then the second half of the 18th century might be the dates of yours. But perhaps this sort of thing was also collected later? So, I'm not sure. I hope @Bronwen will have a better idea.

 

I have a memory of seeing at least the white ones here before - from one of @daveydempsey 's cleanouts? Anyone else remember that?

 

The fad seems to have lasted for quite some time. After James Tassie had such great success, given a huge push when Catherine the Great ordered a full set in colored glass, along with a custom cabinet for them, many others started making them, continuing after James Tassie died. Tassie's workshop was taken over by his nephew William. Some other major names: Paoletti; Cades; Amastini; Lippert; Liberotti.

I bought some loose impressions a while back & my sense is that they were made quite recently, possibly by someone using old ones to make the new. So very hard to date these. Can you spot writing on the edges of any of them? Anything like this?

 

Here are similar items currently being offered on 1stDibs:

https://www.1stdibs.com/search/?q=plaster intaglios

 

I'll look for an edge ID, but they're rimmed with some black material, so the true edge is hidden.

If these are copies or successive impressions, the technique is very good; no bubbles, ragged or lumpy spots, nor other indicators of a degraded image from copies of copies...at least to my untrained eye. I'll try to get some individual close-up pics for addition to this thread.

Thanks again, Bronwen!

 

The collars on all the ones I have seen that were verifiably old have been gilt, sometimes with the name of the subject written by hand in ink around the edge. Think the black means newer & not likely to be marked.

They may be only second generation copies, the molds made from antique ones. They're very clean & fresh looking. You haven't shown us the frames, front & back. There may be clues to age there. Also, are these under glass?

 

The mounting is modern...and without glass...indicating newer, as you suggest.

 

They'd be filthy if they've been exposed since the 1800s.