Grand Tour plaster intaglio casts

[stracci2000]

I'm pretty excited and wanted to share these two interesting items I acquired yesterday.

Here's the story.
A few days ago, I was poking around in an upscale antique mall, and I saw these two items. They looked like cameos, but were made of some type of plaster. I went home and started looking online. When I figured out what they were, I rushed back to buy them.
(The seller thought they were from the 1950s, but they looked much older to me)


They are called Grand Tour plaster intaglio castings. They were made 1820s-30s.
They were cast from carved gem intaglios, showing classical subjects.
They were made to be souvenirs for moneyed folk taking the Grand Tour of Europe in the 1800s.
These castings were made in Italy or England and mounted in trays.
This tray shown below has my intaglio circled. It is the man being lifted by an eagle. The carving is called "The Abduction of Ganymede"
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And here's another collection showing my Ganymede.


I don't know who the lady is on my other intaglio. Perhaps a priestess.
Here she is in another set I found online.
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I will mount these castings in a shadowbox and display them on the wall.
I just had to tell you all about this!

*I must give credit to a wonderful cameo expert on another forum for all her help and great information.

 

[PreRaphaelite]

omg whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy wasn't I there to witness this moment

 

[yssie]

Of all the people I know - @stracci2000 and @PreRaphaelite are the two who would appreciate these slices of history the most!!

What a find! Thank you for sharing, I had no idea these existed

 

[stracci2000]

@PreRaphaelite
I wish you were there, too!
It is so exciting to find a beautiful old treasure.
I was hoping you would see this thread!

@yssie I'm so glad you find this as interesting as I do! Too bad there wasn't an intact tray of these castings!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

Wow, that is awesome, what a find and you knew they were special from the moment you saw them, when the spidey senses go off, you know you’re on to something amazing!

 

[stracci2000]

Wow, that is awesome, what a find and you knew they were special from the moment you saw them, when the spidey senses go off, you know you’re on to something amazing!

Yeah, I had a gut feeling. So I went home and did a little research, and hurried back the next day to buy them. The seller didn't really know what they were.
They are so exciting to me from a historical perspective.

 

[YadaYadaYada]

See, that’s what makes treasure hunting so worthwhile, now these are in the right hands @stracci2000 since you truly appreciate them.

 

[stracci2000]

Here are a few more photos




Here you can see the coloration from the trays that they were glued into.

 

[Cerulean]

These are truly amazing!

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

they are so cool
i have read of these but never seen any
cant wait to see them mounted and on display on your wall