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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 438194, member: 5833"]Yesterday's mail: [ATTACH=full]153962[/ATTACH]The Diana of Versailles, signed with what looks like 'T. Mocchi', listing pic shown previously, now after a long soak in soapy water & a gentle brushing.  [USER=649]@bluumz[/USER] [ATTACH=full]153963[/ATTACH]The seller is probably correct that this one depicts Poseidon & his main squeeze, Amphitrite.  Everything points that way, although the sea god had other dalliances (didn't they all?), & Cupid over there on the left is pouring water from a wide-mouthed jar, usually the symbol for the god/personification of a major river.  Love the hippokampoi on the right, nuzzling, making sort of a heart with their curved necks. The material is a type of shell I have yet to identify.  It is not common & pieces cut in it all seem to be older, early Victorian at the latest.  It is often mistaken for hardstone, even by the likes of Sotheby's & Christie's, especially when the back & edges are covered by the setting, as on this one.  Most specimens whose back I have seen have an indentation consistent with the attachment point for a muscle, which makes me think the shell is a bivalve, not a univalve like the helmet shells. [ATTACH=full]153964[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]153965[/ATTACH]This little guy seems like the embodiment of joy.  Guilt-free: Celluloid or similar.  Mold may have been taken from a carved original.[/QUOTE]