Featured Antique cameo

This brooch belonged to one of my Father's aunts. The label says Lorenzi ? Via Connolli. Rome. I think the date is 1897.

Can anyone tell me anything about it please ?

 

Very pretty cameo, @AbbyRose

@Bronwen will be swooping any minute, now

welcome

 

Lorenzi would be the jeweler.
Appears to be the original box.


@Bronwen

 

Beautiful, AbbyRose, it is a work of art. It is bound to be an archangel, but our cameo expert will tell you more. She has been 'tagged'.

It is certainly 19th century. And I'm with cluttered, the name on the box would be the jeweller.

 

Can't help but... Isn't that lovely? (Rhetorical.)

Debora

 

Hello, AbbyRose. What a lovely thing to have handed down to you, all the more special for the family connection. As usual, AJ is spot on, this is the Archangel St. Gabriel, the Annunciation Angel, letting the Virgin Mary know she is in for a big surprise. After Raphael. Having the original box is an added bonus. Helmet shell, c. 1870.

Shell cameos are only occasionally signed, but sometimes are. When the background layer is as thin as this, any signature is necessarily incised very, very shallowly. Just to be sure, try tilting it at various angles to the light. I have pieces on which the signature is visible only when the cameo is positioned just so.

The winged figure on the cameo Scouts shared is Aurora/Eos, goddess of the Dawn. Another lovely piece I wouldn't mind someone's leaving me.

 

Beautiful piece !! (and welcome aboard!)

 

As much as I like the idea of a via Connolli, it is more likely to have been the via Condotti, where a number of cameo cutters had their studios, catering primarily to tourists. Lorenzi probably carried cameos, micromosaics, reproductions of classical & neoclassical art, etc.

 

Oh that is gorgeous!!

 

Think I can see a gold mark stamped on the pin?

 

21, Via Condotti and period guides to Rome found
online cite it as being in business in 1864 through 1877. (A rough span which might not be inclusive.) Described as a "jeweler" and a "goldsmith."

Debora

 

Ah. He was on Via della Vitti in 1864 so likely a bit later in origin.

Debora

 

a lovely heirloom.....!!!!!!

 

Hi and WELCOME @AbbyRose!!! Your cameo is Pure Loveliness!!!!

 

Thank you SO much everybody , I've learnt a lot ! I wish my Dad was still alive, so I could tell him all this.I will go & look on the pin for a gold mark & also see if there's a signature.

I think the cameo belonged to his Aunt Violet, who was very religious & known in the family as Pi Vi

 

Welcome AbbyRose!
Your cameo is superb, it is an extraordinary first post
The original case points to the 1860s, consistant with the dates Debora found

 

Thanks Kyratango . I've just checked on my family tree. The Aunt was born in 1870, so perhaps the cameo belonged to her mother.

 

And wouldn't that have been a lovely gift to a new mother.
Was Aunt Vi the oldest or only girl?

 

Just lovely.

 

Aunt Vi was the only girl. Cluttered Closet.