Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Have never seen so much work put into rose bushes. She's just lovely & looks wearable.

 

it's lovely........cept for the knees and the shoes....

 

She's just beauuuutiful! The detail is so amazing. He really put different textures in for different things so it doesn't all get lost. And then considered an entire composed scene! Definitely a carver who thought painting shouldn't get all the glory!

Did you find his name in a guide book?

She has her legs crossed at the ankles, like they teach in lady etiquette.

 

Thank you. I think it is beautiful, too. I found him listed in Forrer's:


I also found a signature on a sculpture that looked very similar, but now I can't put my hands on it. I will post when I find it.

 

Here's a cameo that's coming up for auction. I have never seen this subject before, plus it is signed by our friend, J. Mouhe. It would be nice to add to a collection..... I think it is lovely, especially the horse.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-us/...0031/lot-356ff42c-f436-4b33-b285-b10a00f489b5

The subject is Saturn (in horse form) and Philyra. Saturn was cavorting with the nymph Philyra. When his wife Rhea came around, he transformed himself into a horse to escape detection. The resultant child from the union was the centaur Chiron. I have attached an engraving from the 1500s, similar to Rosso Fiorentino's engraving (1495-1540).

 

Another item of interest coming to auction in a few days - intaglio of George Washington. It is signed Harris, and there are several choices in Forrer's, although none list Washington. The listing says it is rock crystal, but I have my doubts. Looks like glass to me. What do you think?

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/antique-18k-gold-and-intaglio-cut-rock-crystal-ri-ecd4e7aa64

 

I see glass here too. Wonder how sure they are, given the spread on the estimate: $200 - 2,000.

 

Sure looks like glass from here. Nice old 18k setting though. I love the estimate - $200-$2000 - IOW they're clueless if it's scrap value or silly money. I love how they call it European too. It's marked Ct that spelling means it's British. No one else would have marked it that way, even if just for export to us Murricans.

 

Then again, this is the same bunch that has an obviously garnet ring marked "ruby". As if.
https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/vintage-18k-gold-and-ruby-ring-12-c-314462a80a

 

Really interesting subject, off the beaten path, as it were. Here is the Poniatowski gem on the theme:

https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/E0D9296B-5E10-4F61-9A30-670C141F688C

I like the Mouhe better, even if it's not in amethyst. It has a lot of watchers, probably for the rarity of the subject.

 

For most things auctioneers take the word of the consignor for nature of an item. Guess they don't have to take into account the wishful thinking of sellers since it's always caveat emptor.

 

I just hope the buyer knows what it really is. Rubellite tourmaline being mistaken, or red spinel, but an orange-tinged red garnet?

 

I even asked the auction house to confirm that they confirmed it through testing to be rock crystal and not glass. They said they did, but I don't believe it.

 

I wonder the same. They didn't even identify George Washington, just said he was a gentleman.

 

I don't have any hands-on experience with it, but have always been skeptical of the ability of a garden variety gem tester to differentiate between silica as crystalline quartz & as glass, particularly when the specimen is mounted in metal.

 

It usually works, but anyone who can't eyeball the difference in something that big... ya gotta wonder.

 

Not cameos, but beautifully carved ivory plaques. They sold at auction today. I really love the one with Diana. The carving is exquisite.

 

Ya gotta wonder what these guys were on. How was the first one described? Looks like all of Dante in one plaque to me. Diana has always been a fave. Wasn't able, with the aid of a translator, to quite make sense of the description on the back, a comparison of Diana's glance to that of Medusa? @kyratango The spacing didn't help at first.

 

I'm afraid neither description had much information. I think they are both wonderful.

 

“Heureux le jour, l’an le mois & la place
L’heure et le temps où vos yeux m’ont tué
Sinon tué à tout le moins mué
Comme Méduse en une froide glace”

Happy the day, the year the month the place
The hour and the time when your eyes killed me
If not killed, at least mutated
Like Medusa in a cold ice

I see a lover intention here!
Edit: just saw in the further description that it was a poem by Ronsard!