- Joined
- Jun 26, 2007
- Messages
- 8,408
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.
________________________________
_______________________________
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.
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"
____________________________________
____________________________________
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.
________________________________
_______________________________
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.
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