Price guide to antique Renaissance Revival cameo brooches. There was an enormous revival of interest in Classical and Renaissance art from about 1850. Archaeological discoveries in Greece, Italy and Egypt fuelled the imagination of designers. Renaissance art and architecture of the 15th and 16th centuries, itself inspired by ancient Rome, also had a great influence. Classical and Renaissance pieces were sometimes copied quite closely, but often a variety of forms and motifs were combined or reinterpreted. Reference: Victoria and Albert Museum
A citrine cameo and diamond brooch, second half of the 19th century
Oval, depicting Marie de’ Medici, Queen of France (1573-1642), within a rose-cut diamond surround, mounted in silver and yellow gold, maker’s mark, French assay marks, brooch length 3.5cm, width 2.8cm
FOOTNOTES
Attributed by the collector to Georges Bissinger, a French gem engraver of German birth, working in the second half of the 19th century in neo-Renaissance style. Marie de’ Medici was a popular motif for Bissinger, modelled on a Renaissance example from the Cabinet de Medallies in Paris. The V&A holds a similar style cameo, within an ornate frame by Carlo Giuliano, circa 1865. Museum number 165-1900. Sotheby’s sold a gem-set gold box by Frédéric Boucheron made in Paris, circa 1881, with a similar agate cameo mounted in the lid. See lot 18, Important European Silver, Gold Boxes & Vertu, 15th April 2010, Paris.
Sold for £ 4,000 inc. premium at Bonhams in 2016
Renaissance Revival Emerald Cameo, Emerald, Ruby, and Diamond Brooch, the emerald cameo carved to depict the head of a curly-haired cherub, measuring approx. 11.50 x 9.00 x 4.90 mm, with cushion-cut emerald and ruby accents, and rose-cut diamonds, silver-topped gold mount, lg. 1 5/8 in., (later catch).
Sold For $1,700 at Skinner in
Labradorite cameo, diamond and pearl locket-brooch, circa 1890
The oval cameo carved with the profile bust of a woman in neo-Renaissance style, surrounded by rose-cut diamonds, the openwork quatrefoil frame decorated with floral sprigs of rose-cut diamonds and accented with pearls at the quarters, the reverse with glazed locket compartment, mounted in gold.
The labradorite cameo in the present brooch is likely the work of Wilhelm Schmidt (1845-1938) originally from Idar in south-west Germany, a town known for mineral and gemstone trading, agate polishing and engraving. At the age of 15, he was sent to a cousin’s workshop in Paris where he first learned the art of cameo cutting from the master Arsène whose idealized classical style had more in common with works of Renaissance masters than the art of the ancients. After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Wilhelm and his brother Louis, a mineral importer, emigrated to London and set up a business at Hatton Garden. The move was well timed given the prosperity of Victorian England and the popularity of ‘archaeological’ jewelry that resulted in a demand for engraved gems. Schmidt was known for his skill in carving unusual stones such as labradorite and claimed to have invented a new and difficult technique for carving opal and opal matrix.
Sold for 10,625 USD at Sothebys in 2008
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