INFO ON 3 HAND PAINTED, SIGNED MINIATURE PORTRAIT PAINTINGS

I found this at a local antique shop today - for $15! After buying them I mentioned to the owner that it was incredible how well done the paintings were for being so small, and she replied that they were prints. When I told her they were actually paintings (I had looked at them with a magnifying glass), she told me if she had known that they would have been a lot more - several hundred dollars more!
I looked on eBay and miniature portraits are fairly expensive - especially pre 1920; any idea how old these are?
Their clothing looks victorian, but after removing one from the frame (I can glue it back but I am thinking they may sell for more individually?), I saw that there cardboard cut into the oval shape of the painting, then there is a piece of paper against the painting that has MADE IN ITALY stamped on it.
Are these just tourist souvenirs?
"Factory" paintings? (each one has a different signature)
Look at the paintings - those ladies are beautiful & the paintings are really well done!
Maybe custom framed in Italy?
Are the paintings older than the cardboard & paper(victorian age)?
I have some vintage small metal frames that were made in Italy; would it be better to put them in those & sell separately?
Finally - did I hit a home run with these?!
Thanks, I appreciate any help.

 

They can be hand painted & still be copies. 'Savini' could be Alfonso Savini, don't know about the other two. All 3 'signatures' look to me like they are by the same hand. Reproductions of paintings of famous beauties were popular home decor at one time. I think that is what these are. You often see this sort of thing on framed porcelain plaques. My opinion, reassemble & sell intact.

 

These are prints. I have seen these type of things at thrift shops occasionally. Just home decor items is what they are

 

Finding a treasure in a antique shop is pretty rare. Most people already know what they have and have it priced for full blown retail or above retail price. You might find something you might make 10 bucks on but if your into buying and reselling...stick to estate sales, yard sales, thrift shops etc

 

They are NOT prints, they are paintings - I looked with a magnifying glass + I can feel the texture of the paint & brush strokes with the ne I took out of the glass.
I agree rink, but I know this lady & always get a fair price - she knows I'm a picker.
Thanks fr the heads up though!

 

What brown said these are like the framed porcelain plaques that you see around at different shops. These are pretty much the same but are prints from original paintings. Post a close up close image of the paper if you can. Also, that's why it says "made in italy" on the back. These were made in Italy for decorational purposes. Your friend is right...these are prints not original paintings

 

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Empi...433593?hash=item4d697f5239:g:6fwAAOSwfjRaBQz0

 

Same thing as yours but those are just renaissance ones and yours is just portraits from original paintings

 

I'be seen those - and the pixels when you loo close.
I will try to take paper all the way off & photograph a close up of back of painting

 

Is it only the white places that actually have any depth? I have seen this: what are basically prints or transfers, touched up with white paint to make them pop out. There are certain Limoges pieces set as jewellery that use this trick.

 

I think they are very pretty. They look 1950s to me, but could be later.
One of the beauties is Lola Montez, an Irish dancer of the first half of the 19th century:

The other two are copies of 18th century portraits. You can google them.

 

Good Heavens! How did you know her? Looked her up & she was quite something, sadly, dying at age 39.

So journey, you can see yours is a copy of this one, painted for Ludwig I of Bavaria, whose mistress she was, to hang in his Gallery of Beauties. Original by Joseph Karl Stieler. Yours may be hand painted, but by one 'Lucio', who was copying Stieler. The others will have similar explanations.

 

Aha.
I live in Australia as a child, and learned about her visit to the goldfields, which caused some excitement. She has fascinated me ever since.

 

Yes, that was quite an episode. I am starting to want to go on a tour of Green-Wood cemetery.

I have a tiny ring, with a teeny-tiny intaglio (hence the poor photo) of Socrates, sold as having been the property of a descendant of John Matthews, 'the Soda Fountain king', who is also in Green-Wood. I think they had it because of the resemblance.

 

You could be right. Are you sure it is not an intaglio of Matthews?
Green-Wood cemetery is not too far from you, right? If you go, will you say hello to Lola from me?

 

Yes it is a print that has been touched up with paint (white lines, etc).
Thanks all!

 

Here is the back of one of them + the 3 in vintage metal frames from Italy - plus, one of the original prints that was in the metal frames that made me think they were all painted & not embellished prints - there's a big difference between the 2 kinds of prints.
Thanks again all!

 

"I found this at a local antique shop today - for $15! After buying them I mentioned to the owner that it was incredible how well done the paintings were for being so small, and she replied that they were prints."

"These are prints. I have seen these type of things at thrift shops occasionally. Just home decor items is what they are"

"They are NOT prints, they are paintings - I looked with a magnifying glass"

"
What brown said these are like the framed porcelain plaques that you see around at different shops. These are pretty much the same but are prints from original paintings. Post a close up close image of the paper if you can. Also, that's why it says "made in italy" on the back. These were made in Italy for decorational purposes. Your friend is right...these are prints not original paintings"

Just a quick summery...

 

In the Symposium, Alcibiades likens Socrates to a satyr & that became one of the conventions for depicting him, with a bald head & snub nose. This one is in Oxford's Beazley Archive:



My photo is terrible, so you can't tell, but the figure on the intaglio has much less hair than the guy on the medallion.

Green-Wood is within reach. Seems as though just everyone is there, so developing a strong urge to see it. Will certainly say Hello to Lola. (Whatever AJ wants, AJ gets...)

At the link for Matthews' grave I gave, it mentions the irony of marble used for his family monument. His carbonation process required a source of calcium carbonate; he found it in the scrap marble left over from the building of St. Patrick's Cathedral.