Hand Painted Ivory Protrait Frame of Soldier. What country?

Any idea what country this handsome gentleman served? Looks like a nicely preserved ivory frame measuring about 4x4 inches with German lettering on back. I'm guessing Austrian. Whatcha all think?

 

I think I found my answer: Kaiser Franz Joseph!!

 

It is a French 'Piano key' miniature, socalled because the ivory veneer frame was thought to be made from old piano key covers, probably it just resembled that.
Late 19th C, early 20th C made to look older by 100 years. Now an antique in its own right but once a fake antique.

They always have an old book page, usually 18th C as the backing, this is supposed to make it look old.

Yours appears to have a religious book from the 19th.C. as the back paper. Such books would have been cheaper than a sheet of clean paper, possibly.

The subjects are usually hand painted miniature copies of period paintings. They are usually painted on ivory by quite skilled artists. Yours seems to be of good overall quality but it helps value if it is a pretty woman.

 

Af, thanks for your thoughts. As always, everything is better with a pretty woman as a subject

 

still......it's very handsome ...

 

...and some of us prefer hot guys to pretty women.

 

Found this...

http://subastas.catawiki.es/kavels/...lderijtjes-op-mammoet-ivoor-2e-helft-20e-eeuw

 

damn close...same metal frame....how many more were made ???

 

I have my doubts about that mammoth ivory claim, but maybe they really are still making them

 

Why doubt the mammoth claim? There is a London newspaper article someplace online with a picture of hundreds of pounds of mammoth ivory on a London train platform dated late 1800's early 1900's.

 

There are a myriad of very similar pics of Emperor Franz Joseph I out there. I think the original ones was done in the 1850s.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Fra...iXWCoSCb69NHbTp-SFERPUJ2N1uUfn&q=Franz Joseph

--- Susan