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Ancient black signet with kings half-face
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<p>[QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 1170750, member: 5833"]The Poniatowski gems look so much like each other & so little like gems from the Classical period, it is hard to imagine, at a time when there were so many collectors/scholars/connoisseurs around, that anyone who had the chance to see even a handful of them together at the same time could have mistaken them as the products of antiquity. Not because Greek & Roman gem engravers weren't capable of producing work of such detail & quality, but because they rarely made anything so large, using stones so flawless, depicting some obscure bits from Classical authors, & then engraving their name right across the bottom. Think there had to have been some willful suspension of disbelief going on. The Met has a handful in storage:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202573" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202573" rel="nofollow">https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202573</a></p><p><br /></p><p>There were so many other fakes meant to pass as genuine floating around, new work in the style of old & old stones with a bogus signature added, that the bottom fell out of the market without the help of Poniatowski. Some of this was perpetrated by the engravers themselves & some, perhaps even more, by unscrupulous dealers.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 1170750, member: 5833"]The Poniatowski gems look so much like each other & so little like gems from the Classical period, it is hard to imagine, at a time when there were so many collectors/scholars/connoisseurs around, that anyone who had the chance to see even a handful of them together at the same time could have mistaken them as the products of antiquity. Not because Greek & Roman gem engravers weren't capable of producing work of such detail & quality, but because they rarely made anything so large, using stones so flawless, depicting some obscure bits from Classical authors, & then engraving their name right across the bottom. Think there had to have been some willful suspension of disbelief going on. The Met has a handful in storage: [URL]https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202573[/URL] There were so many other fakes meant to pass as genuine floating around, new work in the style of old & old stones with a bogus signature added, that the bottom fell out of the market without the help of Poniatowski. Some of this was perpetrated by the engravers themselves & some, perhaps even more, by unscrupulous dealers.[/QUOTE]
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