Cameo Signature Help Needed

My post, with pertinent info:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/cameos-show-tell-or-ask-answer.23493/page-151#post-943311

 

Very cool. It is so nice to be able to identify the subjects. As an FYI, the Vergolini fragment sold for $220 and the Serafini cameo fragment fetched $168. I wonder if the buyer knew more about the cameist than we do.

 

so here is a picture of the back of the cufflinks, there are no marks/hallmarks

 

Seriously doubt it. Do think the market has become more aware of signatures in general, so that even an unknown signature confers value.

 

This cameo is currently for sale on Ebay. A pretty cameo with a broken nose and a chip out of the veil, as well as the dirt/grime. There is a signature on the back with which I was unfamiliar.



I took a guess on Jouanin and actually found him in a listing of exhibitors/winners in the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris. He won a silver medal. Maybe his first name is Charles?


Links to the reference and the Ebay listing, in case you are interested.


https://books.google.com/books?id=oNI-AAAAcAAJ&pg=RA12-PA9&dq=jouanin+graveur&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvhbnYgrz2AhUXVc0KHT7FCDQQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=jouanin%20graveur&f=false

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2554168167...rentrq:74c13e0d17f0ab9e550edaf0fffeeb24|iid:1

 

I thought F as the first letter also. An L in the centre?

 

I found a reference that says Ch. Jouanin was a successor to J.
Mouhé. Or maybe the other way around? This is from an 1862 publication,
Annuaire et almanach du commerce, de l'industrie, de la magistrature et de l ...


https://books.google.com/books?id=VtJBAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA836&lpg=RA1-PA836&dq="ch.+jouanin"+gravure&source=bl&ots=lv-KJy3mTX&sig=ACfU3U1W5OmpuIwnKUOwmscRpk17uWMEdA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje5P7Dt7z2AhVRHc0KHQNNDUUQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q="ch. jouanin" gravure&f=false

... Sorry, I'm not good at figuring out how to embed from Google Books

 

That is excellent, @Figtree! And your link worked beautifully. How interesting to know that Mouhe and Jouanin might have known each other.

I searched more today and found a second Jouanin from 60+ years before and other references to both. See below-

From Société historique du VIe arrondissement de Paris · 1905


From 1904:

The Numismatic Circular - Volume 12 - Page 7881


From 1868:
Dictionnaire général des Artistes de l'École Française depuis l ..., Volume 1

 

Update: Julien-Marie is the father of Victor-Charles! I found that tidbit in
Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur ..., Volume 19, from 1926. Looks like Julien-Marie Jouanin was active 1809- 1830s, while Victor-Charles was active from 1860s-1890s. I wonder who carved the cameo?

 

@PepperAnna @Figtree3 Great work you two. Had not encountered the Jouanins before. Just popping in right now. Will have to come back & get this one into my files. Subject matter makes me suspect eBay cameo is by the earlier Jouanin, but...

 

Very interesting!

 

I need some help. Here's a cameo I just picked up in a mixed lot of jewelry. The shell is very curved. The signature (De Gaetano) is a bit hard to get into a single photo on the back is easily readable. I searched, but can't find any information on him/her. Does anyone recognize the signature or know something about the carver?

 

I found a listing online for a cameo with what looks like the same signature. The description mentions that a date in 1866 appears on the setting, I think. Am currently on my phone, which can make things harder to read. Here is a link, @PepperAnna .
https://www.cheffins.co.uk/fine-art...ury-shell-cameo-depicting-garibaldi_55829.htm

Oh, and reading further, the auction house speculates on who the carver/engraver might have been -- Gaetano Sirletti. I think it is informed speculation, or hope so.

 

@Figtree3 Thank you so very much! I wonder if the auction house's speculation is accurate. The info you found didn't come up in my searches. I did find another cameo with the De Gaetano, but the signature pic was a bit out of focus.

 

I came across this cameo today and thought everyone would enjoy both the subject and the carver's signature (Ludwig Friederich Walther).



It is up for auction at Bertolami Fine Arts with an estimate of 6,000-8,000 GBP. I wish I could win the lottery! The auction listing states:

"This large hardstone cameo of the Centaur with Cupid (Allegory of the invincible strength of Love) is engraved by Ludwig Friederich Walther (1757-1817), with his signature in Greek. The stone is mounted in a Georgian gold ring, c. 1780. Missing on the figure and a crack in the stone. This cameo can be identified as a gem which was commissioned by "the equerry von Crailsheim", i.e. the baron Alexander Hannibal von Crailsheim (c. 1740-1816), chamberlain at the Brandenburg-Ansbach court, personal master of the stable of the duke, and which he had set a ring, which became before 1793 the personal ring of an important member of the Hohenzollen family, Christian Friederich Karl Alexander (1736-1806), last margrave of Beyreuth and Ansbach. The margrave was a well-known amateur of horses and of love. About the carver of the gem, engraver Walther, the centaur cameo is one of his few gems attested in contemporary literature, documented by 1793 as one of his masterpieces. It seems that the material used for this gem is a rare type of fossilized wood, found from 1767 onwards in Rodach - north of Coburg- and exploited by the Walther family until it was exhausted in the late 18th century. It becomes a stone, comparable to an agate. The motif of Centaur with Cupid is copied from a 2nd century A.D. (Hadrianic) marble statue (from Borghese coll. than to Louvre coll. in Paris). This subject was engraved twice by Giovanni Pichler, the last one carved before 1782."

 

@ Bronwen-- I found a signature that was new to me-Camillo Mazzoni. Maybe you already have it in your archives. Recently on Ebay.

Camillo Mazzoni is listed in the 1855 Almanacco Romano Ossia Raccolta dei Primari Dignitari E Funzionari Della Corta Romana.

I think the cameo subject is St. Catherine of Alexandria.

 

Have seen it in my own collection but don't think I ever tried to follow it up. My Beatrice Cenci:

This is great to know. Without the clues to age a mount would provide, the bold clear signature had me thinking this was a self-promoting modern cutter.

I think it is wishful thinking.

 

This interests me greatly as I snatch at anything that might give me insight on a cameo in my collection. I had already tentatively concluded that mine is German & 18th century. Based on the similarity of the cameo to a statuette of the Emperor Domitian known to be by Johann Bernhard Schwartzeburger, I have further tentatively concluded that the cameo is by him or one of his sons. S'burger does not seem to have signed his work, & I have yet to find a cameo anywhere attributed to him, even though Forrer says:


SCHWARZEBURGER, JOHANN BERNHARD (Germ.). Sculptor and
Gem-engraver, born at Frankfort-on-M., 4. June 1672, died there
in July 1741. He is noted for his Cameos. In all his works he was
greatly assisted by his sons ADOLPH S. (born about 1714, 7 March
1738), FRANZ S. (born about 1699, t November 1735), and
VALENTIN S. (born about 1904 [this is clearly a typo], 7 April 1732).

My cameo is the Emperor Nero, as imagined by the artist Antonio Tempesta:





This is what is on the back:

 

It exceeded expectations:

Estimate:
6.000,00/8.000,00 £

Starting price:
4.000,00 GBP

Price realized:
17.000,00 GBP

Bids:
21

 

Yes, someone really wanted that cameo!