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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 11892976, member: 5833&quot;]I can see her special appeal.&nbsp; I agree that she appears modeled on an actual woman, one who is beginning to develop a double chin (a bit like Queen Victoria) &amp; whose nose is not as straight as a ruler, so she seems almost alive.&nbsp; The hair &amp; ivy leaves are very crisply done, with great depth.&nbsp; Although she departs in some ways from convention, I would consider her an Ariadne type, Ariadne getting on for middle age.</p><p><br /></p><p>However, I think she &amp; others, including the ones I call &quot;noblewomen&quot;, date to the last 20 years of the 19th century &amp; for a little time into the 20th.&nbsp; I also hypothesize that they are the products of multiple hands in workshops.&nbsp; They bear an assortment of numbers &amp; letters on the back.&nbsp; I imagine the numbers as belonging to apprentices &amp; journeymen, with only the artist &amp; perhaps the most skilled assistant, leaving their initials or name.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a competent noblewoman type from my collection:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]549772[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse there are a profusion of marks, some of them scratched out, with a not-quite-legible surname in the middle:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]549773[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Surely the marks record the hands the piece passed through on its way to completion.&nbsp; I also suspect that German workshops were the source of some of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I looked at your marks both ways around:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]549774[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]549775[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The central mark could be TT.&nbsp; They are not European 7s.</p><p><br /></p><p>While I think your lady is extremely nice, I think Antonio Vergé can be ruled out as the author.</p><p><br /></p><p>Coincidentally, I just acquired an Ariadne type myself.&nbsp; She does not have the personality of yours; her profile is a standard idealized one.&nbsp; If I can get any decent photos I will show her.&nbsp; She also has an assortment of marks on the reverse.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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