Featured CARVED 3D RELIEF OF BABY'S FACES

@Andy Barnes - Hello & welcome to the forum!!

Two things you should know about this post. #1 - this forum does not allow buying & selling except in one specific area in the marketplace. All communication should take place through the private message system. #2 - This post is from January 2018 & @journeymagazine likely sold these items years ago.

 

Peggy, I think Andy just bought this one or one like it, and would like to know more about it.

 

Hello, Andy. Welcome to Antiquers. You have set an intriguing puzzle for me. If you had said you have a plaster cast of the lower ivory relief, with the dance still in progress, I would have known just where to direct your attention. A company that called itself the Giust Gallery made a huge catalog of plaster casts of art works, architectural details, etc. I'm getting scrambled corporate history from the Internet, but the Giust Gallery was absorbed into Caproni Co., now the Caproni Collection, although under other ownership.

Giust/Caproni still produce casts of the putti dancing to a piper and its fellow, putti playing with a dog:



If you would like a mate for your cast:

https://www.capronicollection.com/products/cupids-dancing

https://www.capronicollection.com/products/cupids-dancing-with-dog

A selection of back catalogs is available on line:

https://www.capronicollection.com/pages/historic-catalogs

I confess to not having gone through them all page by page, so perhaps that's why I have not seen a listing for a cast of the ivory relief that interests us both more (I own the ivory). I have assumed that if it were in the collection it would be listed adjacent to the other two. But the existence of the plaque you own has to make one wonder.

I suggest we continue the conversation privately, although, because you cannot upload photos to PMs, only download, would appreciate a photo of your piece in a reply here.

 

Yes I sold them - I posted it when they sold.

 

Could it be that these two are carvings depicting someone's actual children? When my family immigrated from Germany and Poland there were several wood workers/carvers among them. Maybe a memorialization of two children who passed away. My Italian roots a painter that did portraits of my Great grandparent's children (all 12 of them). Just throwing that out there.