Featured Date on Mini Portrait Pendant?

This might be a little familiar...my icon image. I've been trying to track down a date on her for a while now but coming up with similar style and size of portrait, or similar housing, has proven difficult. She is painted to be a late 18th century lady in a glorious wig, but is she of that period?



She looks to be watercolor on ivory, based on the texture of the ground. You can see the edges of her disc, and the edges of the filler. The artist took advantage of the color of the ivory to be her skin. She's set under glass, fully into the pendant, and is not a locket. It does not open. The circle of the pendant is approximately the size of a USA penny, or 7/8 in / 2.2225 cm / 22.225 mm.



The pendant is gold and hand cut/tooled with a floral design on the back. I only ever get pocket watch results when I try to find another...



Scored to look like a locket, but alas...not.



Two half pearls in the bale, crimped in. No marks that I can find, just misc. indentions. I checked with a x25.



The only similar leads I have in portrait style are this 18th century box clasp from a history of clasps book. Same face and neck shape, same blush shape, bow mouth, similar nose, similar collar shape, and a similar heavy-hand on the dress paint.



And the post spartcom5 recently made, showing a similar mouth, nose, and eyebrow.





So what do we think? Take her at wig value for late 18th? Or is she a 19th c piece looking backwards? Anyone seen something similar in portrait or hand-cut design? Any guesses on who she might be, if anyone? Thanks all!

 

The back appears to have air bubbles in the "cut" lines,so it would be cast and not hand worked.

 

Where do you see bubbles? All I can see are where the lines have been overcut in some areas.

 

Looks like bubbles in the circled areas,may be more but hard to see in photo.

 

I see blade marks over shooting the boundary lines....and slipping off the curves in several areas..

 

look at the vertical lines...they over shoot in several places..

 

Thanks for looking so closely and taking the time to circle things. I really appreciate it. Here are some close-ups of a few of the areas (I looked at the others to confirm they are the same). I think you can see here that they aren't bubbles, but overcuts from the vertical and shading lines, and some less-than-expert freehand curve overcuts.



I think it's interesting you can see that the vertical cuts were done before some of the "divots" done on the outside of the spray, so they still have lines in some of them.

 

In the photo on the left the vertical cuts were made after the other designs were engraved.

 

My feeble historical sense is saying Regency.

 

Wow,it's quite informative to see these micro-pics of this piece.Not sure we get this detailed often,but I miss lots of the postings.

 

Hm. She looks Georgian as does that Pearl set bale, but the back engraving style is more Victorian to my eye. I surmise it was once plain till someone clobbered it.

 

A lovely piece, mirana.
Her hairstyle is 1790s, and she is probably of the period.
I think the case and bale are 20th century. Antique miniatures were often mounted in a jewel at a later date, and she looks very happy in it.

They are not exactly crimped in. It looks more like a millegriffe setting to me.
Millegriffe was popular in the Art Deco period, but of course it wasn't restricted to the 1920s-30s.