LOT 0335

Hardstone Cameo of a Muse in Ring

ITALY, 18TH CENTURY A.D.

1 in. (6.47 grams, 25.88 mm overall, 16.12 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J 1/2, USA 5, Europe 9.32, Japan 9)).

Carved in two-coloured red and brown agate, depicting a classical muse in right-facing profile with flowing hair, and drapery, the laurel wreath identifying her as an embodiment of poetic or artistic inspiration; the cameo set in a 19th-century mount with a border of single-cut diamonds set in platinum, a pierced, open-backed construction and bifurcated shoulders enriched with classical leaf motifs.

Acquired on the European art market.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13327-257906.

Cf. a similar cameo of an English Lady as muse in Draper, J.D., Cameo Appearances, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Haven-London, 2008, p.7 no.4.

The union of an eighteenth-century Italian gem engraving with a later English mount reflects a broader nineteenth-century practice of integrating earlier engraved gems into newly conceived settings.