Featured Help me understand what this is and who is depicted.

Hello everyone. Dear forum members, help me understand what this is and who is depicted?
It has been in our family for over 100 years. I wonder who this is and what it is made of?

I am counting on your help.

 

was probably from a ring or fob at one time i would think

 

Someone who may be able to help:
@Bronwen

 

https://www.google.com/search?sca_e...QIHVilBxsQtKgLegQIFBAB&biw=1600&bih=730&dpr=1

 

It is a glass intaglio meant for leaving an impression in sealing wax. Judging by the small size, probably, as CC said, from a watch fob seal or, I think less likely, a signet ring, rather than a desk seal. I cannot put a name to the individual, but it will be someone famous in antiquity, one of the legions of philosopher/poet types in all likelihood.

If you care to scout, such figures start with Tassie impression 9922:

https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/b.../carc/Gems2/James-Tassie&firstField=gemNumber

 

Thank you very much for your help!

 

is there a difference between something like this in relief than the other way bronners ?

 

just that some seem the tother way

 

I'm not sure I know what you're asking, so forgive me if this does not answer it. In an intaglio, the figure/design is engraved down into the material, below the surface. If it is cut in raised relief, even when all one color, it is a cameo.

I took the item under discussion as an intaglio, I suppose in part because that's what I expect it to be. I have a long history of misreading depth in photos. If the figure is actually raised it should be called a cameo. Either way, the Tassie impressions are the place to look for a match.

I should recant a little & say OP's might well have been a ring stone, although fob seal is at least equally likely. Here is a colorless glass intaglio from my own collection. It is set in a late Georgian era ring.

 

yeah i'm not sure either bronwen, to me it looks as though its in relief, but perhaps the other way, hard to tell to be sure

 

if i had to edge a bet, i'd think in relief

 

On my item the image is cut inwards, pressed in.

 

Thanks for clarifying that Paris, pay no attention to me, just think village idiot

 

Leave me out of it!

 

Can you please help with one more item?
The photo doesn't convey the color, but it's bluish. If possible, find out who is depicted?

 

Cecrops and Athena?

(and the owl of Athena in the middle?)

 

I'll get back to this later, after I take care of some things I have to do first, but my immediate impressions are that this one is stone, specifically chalcedony, a variety of quartz, so engraved, not molded. Whether it is actually 'antique' (in the world of glyptics, engraved gems, this designates what most of us would call an antiquity, not just something 100+ years old) or a relatively contemporary, 18th - 19th century, copy, I have no way to know.

I'm pretty sure the seated figure is Zeus/Jupiter, with his eagle on the ground in front of him. My very first thought was a scene of Jupiter giving the laws of the universe to Nemesis*, but then, looking at a pic from a different angle, thought I saw a stylized caduceus, so Hermes/Mercury, the messenger of the gods.


One of the reasons I resisted intaglios for a long time was that they can be so darned hard to see, even with them in hand, let alone to photograph. However, if you can get a shot that shows the standing figure better, it may be helpful.

Later.

 

* Thorvaldsen's version:

 

Appears to be Herakles/Hercules, not Cecrops. Athena welcoming him to Olympus would be my guess. There are similar scenes where the female is Hebe, who became his wife.

Addendum. I can see though, how it might be construed as Cecrops. The tree in the background may be meant for an olive tree, which would be an allusion to the story of how Athena became the patron of the city instead of its being Poseidon, and the squiggly bit behind him could suggest his dragon body instead of a lion's tail. However, it does look like Herk's lion headdress & Cecrops doesn't usually have legs.

 

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