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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 457219, member: 5833"]Said friend gave me his contact at the Hermitage.  Lena's field is classical gems & impressions of them, not modern engraved gems, so the degree to which she has taken an interest in trying to discover more about the origins of my little cameo has (pleasantly) stunned me. Lena thought to check on what Olenin's grave marker looks like and found a photo that gives a tantalizing hint that the relief portrait there may look like the cameo.  She made a special trip to take better photos: [ATTACH=full]157903[/ATTACH] Today had another message from Lena that is very exciting.  In part: I managed to hit on a solution of the "wrong" date of Olenin's birth which is indicated on your cameo. The thing is that the date, which is specified everywhere including his tombstone, is taken from his record of service - November 21, 1763. However, Olenin himself in several documents named his birth date - November 21, 1764, which exactly coincides with the date on your cameo. The "official" date is that arisen because of a feeling of obligation to keep appearances since there is an opinion according to which Matvei Kashtalinsky was Alexey Olenin's father. The presence on the cameo of the "unofficial" date of birth, which Olenin considered to be correct himself, makes it possible to make a supposition that this cameo was ordered by a person close to Olenin's family, might be a close friend or one of his children. By the way, the great-grandson of Olenin died in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, who knows what he had on him, when he got there what happened to these things?) From a funny little cameo, it has now become very interesting indeed![/QUOTE]

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