11/5/2023 0 Comments Flora gems1824,0301.86) were known to have made convincing imitations of antique gems which were sold as ancient. The engravers who worked for dealers like Jenkins were often very talented both the English gem-engraver Nathaniel Marchant, who worked in Rome from 1772 to 1778, and the Italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci (see registration no. Jenkins found dealing in gems to be so profitable that by theġ790s he had given up dealing in pictures and marbles. The taste for gems reached a peak in the 1780s. Bless your heart! he sold 'em as fast as they made 'em'." I saw 'em at work though, and Jenkins gave a whole handful of 'em to me to say nothing about the matter to anybody else but myself. "as for Jenkins, he followed the trade of supplying the foreign visitors with intaglios and cameos made by his own people, that he kept in a part of the ruins of the Coliseum, fitted up for 'em to work in slyly by themselves. Jenkins's main trade was in highly restored sculptures during the 1760s he was assisted in 'putting antiques together' by the English sculptor, Joseph Nollekens, who, some years later, recalled the method by which Jenkins met the demand for antique gems: Chief amongst these were James Byres and Thomas Jenkins, both of whom supplied antique gems. 152.īy the 1770s the market in classical sculptures, bronzes, coins and gems had come to be dominated by British dealers resident in Rome. Rudoe, 'The faking of gems in the 18th and early 19th centuries' from Jones 1990, cat. Kim Sloan with Andrew Burnett, London 2003. ![]() See J.Rudoe, 'Engraved gems: the lost art of antiquity', in 'Enlightenment, Discovering the World in the Eighteenth Century', ed. Forrer, Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, iv, pp. Billing, The Science of Gems, Jewels, Coins and Medals, 1867, pp. Though the secret mark which Pistrucci stated that he had engraved on the back of the stone cannot be discerned, there can be little doubt that the work is modern and as it is in the style of the early nineteenth century, there seems no reason to question Pistrucci's statement. Payne-Knight, who, to the day of his death, treasured it as an antique, despite Pistrucci's claim to its authorship. Not long after his arrival in this country, in 1815, he saw the gem in the possession of Mr. The Italian engraver Benedetto Pistrucci (1784-1855), while still living in Italy, had engraved gems for the dealer Bonelli: among them, according to his own account, was this head of Flora. This is the cameo known as 'the Flora of Pistrucci'. What remains of the lowest stratum is cut very thin. The stone is ground at the back, forming a sharp diagonal line from chin to occiput. Text from Dalton 1915, Catalogue of Engraved Gems:
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