A neoclassical onyx cameo set in a gold brooch with pearls. Bust of Apollo.

Second half of the 19th century
Cameo 16x22 mm ; 15 grs

The young god, identifiable with the Apollo Belvedere model, faces right and is wearing a tunique with chlamys. Beautiful victorian gold brooch with pearls. This prototype has been widely copied and reproduced also on cameos, inspired by the famous statue of the Vatican. For example, the cameo engraved by Saulini in the parure of the Metropoliotan Museum (inv..40.20.55a-c). A very fine exemple of this type comes from the production on Nathaniel Marchant. Parallels: Catalogue of One Hundred Impressions from Gems engraved by Nathaniel Marchant, J.Edwards, London, 1792, pg. 10, no. XIV, for a listing of a sardonyx intaglio of the Apollo Belvedere, commissioned by the politician J. Cox Hippisley, 1st Baronet (1746-1825). Seidmann, Nathaniel Marchant, Gem Engraver, 1739-1816, The Walpole Society,LIII, 1987, pg.41-2, no.11, mentions that this design of the Apollo Belvedere was particularly popular, and Marchant carved several intaglios of it.

"
U.K. private collection