Cameo Signature Help Needed

Discussion in 'Jewelry' started by Bronwen, May 30, 2019.

  1. bluumz

    bluumz Quite Busy

    Bronwen likes this.
  2. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    Very cool. It is so nice to be able to identify the subjects. As an FYI, the Vergolini fragment sold for $220 and the Serafini cameo fragment fetched $168. I wonder if the buyer knew more about the cameist than we do.
     
    Bronwen and Figtree3 like this.
  3. MaJa

    MaJa Active Member

    so here is a picture of the back of the cufflinks, there are no marks/hallmarks
    IMG_2097.jpg
     
    kyratango and Bronwen like this.
  4. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Seriously doubt it. Do think the market has become more aware of signatures in general, so that even an unknown signature confers value.
     
  5. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    This cameo is currently for sale on Ebay. A pretty cameo with a broken nose and a chip out of the veil, as well as the dirt/grime. There is a signature on the back with which I was unfamiliar. jouanin cameo.jpg

    jouanin signature.jpg

    I took a guess on Jouanin and actually found him in a listing of exhibitors/winners in the 1867 Universal Exposition in Paris. He won a silver medal. Maybe his first name is Charles?

    Jouanin reference.jpg
    Links to the reference and the Ebay listing, in case you are interested.


    https://books.google.com/books?id=oNI-AAAAcAAJ&pg=RA12-PA9&dq=jouanin+graveur&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvhbnYgrz2AhUXVc0KHT7FCDQQ6AF6BAgEEAI#v=onepage&q=jouanin%20graveur&f=false

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/2554168167...rentrq:74c13e0d17f0ab9e550edaf0fffeeb24|iid:1
     
  6. Janice Nicholls

    Janice Nicholls Active Member

    I thought F as the first letter also. An L in the centre?
     
    Bronwen likes this.
  7. Figtree3

    Figtree3 What would you do if you weren't afraid?


    I found a reference that says Ch. Jouanin was a successor to J.
    Mouhé. Or maybe the other way around? This is from an 1862 publication,
    Annuaire et almanach du commerce, de l'industrie, de la magistrature et de l ...


    https://books.google.com/books?id=VtJBAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA836&lpg=RA1-PA836&dq="ch.+jouanin"+gravure&source=bl&ots=lv-KJy3mTX&sig=ACfU3U1W5OmpuIwnKUOwmscRpk17uWMEdA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwje5P7Dt7z2AhVRHc0KHQNNDUUQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q="ch. jouanin" gravure&f=false

    ... Sorry, I'm not good at figuring out how to embed from Google Books
     
    Simona Buhus, Bronwen and PepperAnna like this.
  8. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    That is excellent, @Figtree! And your link worked beautifully. How interesting to know that Mouhe and Jouanin might have known each other.

    I searched more today and found a second Jouanin from 60+ years before and other references to both. See below-

    From Société historique du VIe arrondissement de Paris · 1905

    Jouanin 2.jpg
    From 1904:

    The Numismatic Circular - Volume 12 - Page 7881

    jouanin 3.jpg

    From 1868:
    Dictionnaire général des Artistes de l'École Française depuis l ..., Volume 1

    Jouanin 4.jpg
     
    Simona Buhus, kyratango and Bronwen like this.
  9. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    Update: Julien-Marie is the father of Victor-Charles! I found that tidbit in
    Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur ..., Volume 19, from 1926. Looks like Julien-Marie Jouanin was active 1809- 1830s, while Victor-Charles was active from 1860s-1890s. I wonder who carved the cameo?
     
  10. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    @PepperAnna @Figtree3 Great work you two. Had not encountered the Jouanins before. Just popping in right now. Will have to come back & get this one into my files. Subject matter makes me suspect eBay cameo is by the earlier Jouanin, but...
     
  11. Figtree3

    Figtree3 What would you do if you weren't afraid?

    Very interesting!
     
    Bronwen and PepperAnna like this.
  12. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    I need some help. Here's a cameo I just picked up in a mixed lot of jewelry. The shell is very curved. The signature (De Gaetano) is a bit hard to get into a single photo on the back is easily readable. I searched, but can't find any information on him/her. Does anyone recognize the signature or know something about the carver? 20220310_121809.jpg 20220310_120650.jpg 20220310_120738.jpg
     
  13. Figtree3

    Figtree3 What would you do if you weren't afraid?

    I found a listing online for a cameo with what looks like the same signature. The description mentions that a date in 1866 appears on the setting, I think. Am currently on my phone, which can make things harder to read. Here is a link, @PepperAnna .
    https://www.cheffins.co.uk/fine-art...ury-shell-cameo-depicting-garibaldi_55829.htm

    Oh, and reading further, the auction house speculates on who the carver/engraver might have been -- Gaetano Sirletti. I think it is informed speculation, or hope so.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2022
    Bronwen and Simona Buhus like this.
  14. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    @Figtree3 Thank you so very much! I wonder if the auction house's speculation is accurate. The info you found didn't come up in my searches. I did find another cameo with the De Gaetano, but the signature pic was a bit out of focus.
     
    Last edited: Mar 12, 2022
    Bronwen and Figtree3 like this.
  15. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    I came across this cameo today and thought everyone would enjoy both the subject and the carver's signature (Ludwig Friederich Walther).

    Walther centuar cameo.jpg

    It is up for auction at Bertolami Fine Arts with an estimate of 6,000-8,000 GBP. I wish I could win the lottery! The auction listing states:

    "This large hardstone cameo of the Centaur with Cupid (Allegory of the invincible strength of Love) is engraved by Ludwig Friederich Walther (1757-1817), with his signature in Greek. The stone is mounted in a Georgian gold ring, c. 1780. Missing on the figure and a crack in the stone. This cameo can be identified as a gem which was commissioned by "the equerry von Crailsheim", i.e. the baron Alexander Hannibal von Crailsheim (c. 1740-1816), chamberlain at the Brandenburg-Ansbach court, personal master of the stable of the duke, and which he had set a ring, which became before 1793 the personal ring of an important member of the Hohenzollen family, Christian Friederich Karl Alexander (1736-1806), last margrave of Beyreuth and Ansbach. The margrave was a well-known amateur of horses and of love. About the carver of the gem, engraver Walther, the centaur cameo is one of his few gems attested in contemporary literature, documented by 1793 as one of his masterpieces. It seems that the material used for this gem is a rare type of fossilized wood, found from 1767 onwards in Rodach - north of Coburg- and exploited by the Walther family until it was exhausted in the late 18th century. It becomes a stone, comparable to an agate. The motif of Centaur with Cupid is copied from a 2nd century A.D. (Hadrianic) marble statue (from Borghese coll. than to Louvre coll. in Paris). This subject was engraved twice by Giovanni Pichler, the last one carved before 1782."
     
    Bronwen, Simona Buhus, KSW and 2 others like this.
  16. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    @ Bronwen-- I found a signature that was new to me-Camillo Mazzoni. Maybe you already have it in your archives. Recently on Ebay.

    Camillo Mazzoni is listed in the 1855 Almanacco Romano Ossia Raccolta dei Primari Dignitari E Funzionari Della Corta Romana.

    I think the cameo subject is St. Catherine of Alexandria.

    st agnes.jpg
    mazzoni.jpg mazzoni 1855.jpg
     
    Any Jewelry, Figtree3 and Bronwen like this.
  17. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    Have seen it in my own collection but don't think I ever tried to follow it up. My Beatrice Cenci:

    De Gaetano Beatrice_Cenci_CT_A.jpg De Gaetano Beatrice sig.jpg

    This is great to know. Without the clues to age a mount would provide, the bold clear signature had me thinking this was a self-promoting modern cutter.

    I think it is wishful thinking.
     
  18. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    This interests me greatly as I snatch at anything that might give me insight on a cameo in my collection. I had already tentatively concluded that mine is German & 18th century. Based on the similarity of the cameo to a statuette of the Emperor Domitian known to be by Johann Bernhard Schwartzeburger, I have further tentatively concluded that the cameo is by him or one of his sons. S'burger does not seem to have signed his work, & I have yet to find a cameo anywhere attributed to him, even though Forrer says:


    SCHWARZEBURGER, JOHANN BERNHARD (Germ.). Sculptor and
    Gem-engraver, born at Frankfort-on-M., 4. June 1672, died there
    in July 1741. He is noted for his Cameos. In all his works he was
    greatly assisted by his sons ADOLPH S. (born about 1714, 7 March
    1738), FRANZ S. (born about 1699, t November 1735), and
    VALENTIN S. (born about 1904 [this is clearly a typo], 7 April 1732).

    My cameo is the Emperor Nero, as imagined by the artist Antonio Tempesta:

    NeroAdjusted.jpg

    Barbarian2B.jpg

    This is what is on the back:

    Dlu B.png
     
    kyratango and Figtree3 like this.
  19. Bronwen

    Bronwen Well-Known Member

    It exceeded expectations:

    Estimate:
    6.000,00/8.000,00 £

    Starting price:
    4.000,00 GBP

    Price realized:
    17.000,00 GBP

    Bids:
    21
     
    Figtree3 likes this.
  20. PepperAnna

    PepperAnna Well-Known Member

    Yes, someone really wanted that cameo!
     
    Bronwen likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page