Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

The long of it:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/13/the-british-museums-blockbuster-scandals

The not-so-long of it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68665773

All those professional dealers who have pooh-poohed using eBay as a hunting ground.

 

I am watching both of those, too. If you intend to bid, please let me know and I will not.

 

Hi Bronwyn,

I used Google books and found this, which is where the except came from. The entire book is available for download. (YAY!) There is an autobiography of Pistrucci at the end as well as many nice cameos, coins and sculptures. I have just started to read it.

 

I remember reading this when it came out and I also talked to Claudia Wagner, who worked there and at the Classical Art Research Centre (Oxford University). The theft was having repercussions across the museum world, and she had just been temporarily denied access to altering the records at CARC. She was handling the Poniatowski gems database at the time. I had been sending pictures of Poniatowski gems that had come up for auction so that the database could be updated. Some of the Poniatowski gem descriptions don't include pictures, but I had found several at auction over the last 5 years.

 

I was idly looking through an auction (local) that's going to be too spendy for me and a lot that says it's four 14k cameos - actually three cameos and a miniature portrait. I don't think there's anything crazy, although there's a lava in the next lot, and the shell cameo has what looks like a signature. The blue/green one had a Victorian/Georgian hinge that was repaired later. It looks like hardstone, but which stone?

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/221371192_four-14k-yellow-gold-cameos-windsor-ct

 

The green one with Thorvaldsen's Day on it is dyed chalcedony. like my little green Diana that I have shown as a case study in before & after cleaning.

 

No, not planning to bid. I still watch things of interest, just to see what the market is doing. My Christmas treat to myself came off of eB, a cameo brooch & earring set, probably early 20th century. Although not a phenomenal bargain, still feel I got good value for money, especially with gold behaving the way it is. Best thing is I can actually wear them, should the occasion arise. New Year's resolution: make more occasions.

 

I had a brief reply from Claudia to a Poniatowski related message in November. Can't help but think we may have been both bringing the same pieces to her attention over the years, although I'm probably the only one to bring Incolay cuff links to her notice. I have been assuming she still has an interest in the Poniatowski gems, but as far as I know, she no longer has a position with CARC & the gems database seems to be suffering terminal neglect.

I could swear I had previously seen an article by Martin Henig, or an interview with him, about the Museum pilfering, but couldn't find it this time. Think he also had the Cassandra experience of trying to sound the alarm & being brushed off.

 

The grocery store is an Occasion.

 

I have the pdf of the book downloaded; think also in my 'library', with a number of others, if it still exists. Originally found these through Ggle with little effort. Now it never leads me to books, doesn't even ask if I want to see my library. Maybe I need to sign in to my account? Not sure I know user name or password anymore.

And only got an AI bullet point list of what this says when I lens it. Where is this from?

 

Yes, I never saw any incolay cufflinks! And we probably were bringing the same ones to her. I also saw that the gems database is being neglected. It is sad because it is such a resource. And the interview with Martin Henig rings a bell, but I will have to look for it.

 

Here is where I found Lupi's advertisement on page 122:

https://books.google.com/books?id=D...=2ahUKEwi-tfWA396RAxVrLFkFHaCCKZcQ6AF6BAgGEAM

 

Thank you. I see Siotto, Filippo Verge, Rosi & De Felici are in there too.

 

Sometimes Claudia added them to the images. One example, if you can see it!

https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/FFE39D3C-2DB6-401C-8126-6AAF3832CDC7

 

The men's jeweller Dante made them. They even came in cool little wooden boxes with Incolay lids.

Some years ago I saw this ring with, as I recall, a pretty hefty price tag, which appears to have been built around a single cuff link:

 

Wow! That's amazing.

 

This is from the same folks who are so richly supplying laughable listings.



I don't think it's Moses & Psyche Falling, I think it is The Tempest, but on the back it does say



That rarity, 'Schmoll' written out in its entirety.

 

Psst - don't clue them in, lest Schmoll becomes the next ubiquitous keyword, found applied to ponytail girl.

 

I told them almost a year ago what this was and explained the specific part of The Tempest, but no change to the listing.

 

This is a singular seller. Located in midtown Manhattan Jewelry District, have realized I saw their booth & talked to the woman tending it, since they were the only ones at the Jewelry & Watch Show with a large selection of relatively interesting cameos. They have a lot of things from the Noto workshop, saw another Schmoll, & many for which the pix pick up something inscribed on the back, but too faint/fragmented for me to make out. Only a handful of listings make any mention of a signature.

Their descriptions of subjects range from the surprisingly accurate to the many you have seen that were less so. A lot of examples of a little knowledge leading to ludicrous results, with evidently no one there who can spot the goofiness, e.g., Prince Charlie Bonnie.