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DESCRIPTION |
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O
ffered for sale here is a small solid 14k red gold
pin. This pin is mounted with a hand carved banded agate cameo of an ancient Greek
philosopher or writer. The cameo is carved from banded green and white agate; an
unusual color not often encountered in finely hand carved cameos. This agate has
been dyed to produce the green colored background. I have checked the green color
(the telltale pink cast the green part of the agate displays when viewed through a
Chelsea filter indicates it is dyed). T he dying of agate to produce stronger banding to make cameos began in the 1820's. Most agate cameos in the later 19th and 20th centuries are dyed but usually only to enhance the difference in the black and white, and carnelian and white banding. This green color indicates the cameo was made in the mid-to-late 19th century when ways to dye stone more vibrant colors were discovered. The pin mounting for the cameo is of the same date as the cameo with some mid 20th century modifications. Its pin back has been replaced with one of modern manufacture and a clip-on type mechanism has been added to it upper back so it can be hung from a chain. T he image on this cameo is difficult to identify with absolute certainty. Gem engravers in the 19th and early 20th century often misinterpreted earlier cameos when copying them. The 19th century engravers also embellished their gems with attributes that were not original to the image they were copying and invented different poses for the famous men of antiquity. These variant poses and attributes make identification a bit of a struggle. T his portrait I think is one of three possible persons, but admittedly it is only an opinion. It could be the Greek philosopher Epicurus, the Greek philosopher Plato or the ancient Greek author Homer. The beard and profile of the portrait are done in the way Epicurus is portrayed on ancient gems. The face is long; the nose is long and straight as he is portrayed in antiquity. However Epicurus is not, to my knowledge, usually portrayed with a fillet in his hair. The portrait, however, has a strong likeness to Epicurus. The second candidate is Homer. Homer is almost always portrayed with a fillet in his hair indicating his nobility or divinity. An additional reason to identify this portrait as Homer is the somewhat sunken eye the portrait exhibits. T his is consistent in portraying homer as blind. Admittedly the portrait is young for the way Homer is usually portrayed. Finally it could also be Plato who is portrayed as bearded and occasionally with a fillet in his hair. His face is not usually so long though. My vote is that this is a very late 19th century or early 20th century portrait of an idealized Epicurus. This is, admittedly, an intuitive impression, but I think I have seen this image somewhere before as a representation of Epicurus, I just can’t document it. Then again, the cameo may, in the end, be just a pastiche, an idealized ancient philosopher type with no one in particular intended. Regardless of who it is meant to be, the cameo is sensitively carved with fine attention to detail. The carver was a talented artist. The cameo is not signed. T he cameo measures 17.5mm by 11.5mm. The pin measures 24mm by 19mm. The cameo is in a very good state of preservation with only a few very small nicks to its beard and hair. These nicks are only visible under 10x magnification. T he pin shows some wear but is in very good wearable condition. It has lost some of its reverse mill grain edge decoration through repeated polishing. As stated above its pin back has been replaced and an additional hanging system has been added to the pins back. The pin presents itself as a red gold frame for the fine cameo portrait. NOTE: NOTE: Analogous Gems in the Literature: G. Richter, Engraved Gems of the Romans #s 438-442 (Epicurus); M. Henig, Classical Gems etc., # 783 (Homer); C. W. King, Hand Book of Engraved Gems, Plate LXIX #2 |