Featured For the cameo and opal lovers

came upon this…wow!

 

Schmidt did incredible things with difficult stones. As Ms. Barber said, most of his work is not signed, so these days every last opal cameo gets ascribed to him.

Would like to have a better view of the cameo on the front of the plinth. She IDs the cameo on one side as Cleopatra & the one on the back as Isis, but misidentifies the one on the other side as Minerva when it actually looks like Queen Nefertari, a fitting companion for the 2 other Egyptian figures.

She also keeps saying the bust is carved from a single piece when it is - as if this were not enough - the head and the helmet & its crest that are a single piece. The shoulders & chest are agate; without them the head would be a head, not a bust.

Just a gorgeous example of lapidary art. Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

A beautiful and remarkable thing.

Here's the Bonham's entry:
https://www.bonhams.com/press_release/35548/

I can't find the sale result.

 

You need a subscription to see hammer price.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...0521/lot-43c524e0-f584-4ffa-8aed-af5400a29572

Estimate 70,000 - 100,000 GBP

 

Pocket change

 

Down here on th' ground, it is a rare and delicious treat to view, even at some distance, such a profound example of surpassing talent. How many people today, with all modern tooling available, are capable of the vision, let alone the requisite an' myriad skills, to produce anything remotely approaching Schmidts masterpiece? Few...if any, methinks.
What a breathtaking achievement!

 

Oh, to have...just once...that kinda jingle in my britches!

 

Opal was not the only unusual stone Schmidt worked with. See:

https://gem-a.com/gem-hub/gem-knowledge/cameos-natural-history-museum-london

Our member Pepperanna was on the Bonhams auction at the time:

CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

And another time Schmidt came up in the cameos thread:

CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

 

Takes ones breath away. So lovely.