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76-573: The Cheapside Hoard is a hoard of jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in 1912 by workmen using a pickaxe to excavate in a cellar at 30–32 Cheapside in London, on the corner with Friday Street. They found a buried wooden box containing more than 400 pieces of Elizabethan and Jacobean jewellery, including rings, brooches and chains, with bright coloured gemstones and enamelled gold settings, together with toadstones , cameos , scent bottles, fan holders, crystal tankards and

152-685: A jewellery context will almost always mean carved gems; when referring to monumental sculpture , the term counter-relief , meaning the same as intaglio , is more likely to be used. Vessels like the Cup of the Ptolemies and heads or figures carved in the round are also known as hardstone carvings . Glyptics or glyptic art covers the field of small carved stones, including cylinder seals and inscriptions, especially in an archaeological context. Though they were keenly collected in antiquity, most carved gems originally functioned as seals , often mounted in

228-423: A double-sided cameo gem with portraits of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and his wife and son. The Scot James Tassie (1735–1799), and his nephew William (1777–1860) developed methods for taking hard impressions from old gems, and also for casting new designs from carved wax in enamel , enabling a huge production of what are really imitation engraved gems. The fullest catalogue of his impressions ("Tassie gems")

304-407: A drill, which does not allow fine detail. There is no evidence that magnifying lenses were used by gem cutters in antiquity. A medieval guide to gem-carving techniques survives from Theophilus Presbyter . Byzantine cutters used a flat-edged wheel on a drill for intaglio work, while Carolingian ones used round-tipped drills; it is unclear where they learnt this technique from. In intaglio gems at least,

380-487: A favourite topic for antiquaries from the Renaissance onwards, culminating in the work of Philipp von Stosch, described above. Major progress in understanding Greek gems was made in the work of Adolf Furtwängler (1853–1907, father of the conductor, Wilhelm ). Among recent scholars Sir John Boardman (b. 1927) has made a special contribution, again concentrating on Greek gems. Gertrud Seidmann (1919–2013) moved into

456-774: A few pieces went to the British Museum and the Guildhall Museum, and one gold and enamel chain was purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum . The finds were exhibited at the London Museum in Kensington in 1914, to great acclaim. The collections of the Guildhall Museum and the London Museum came together when they merged to form the Museum of London in 1975. The entire hoard was displayed together for

532-445: A finished state. These were probably buried with the intention to be recovered at a later time. A merchant's hoard is a collection of various functional items which, it is conjectured, were buried by a traveling merchant for safety, with the intention of later retrieval. A personal hoard is a collection of personal objects buried for safety in times of unrest. A hoard of loot is a buried collection of spoils from raiding and

608-477: A flattish faced stone that might fit into a ring. Seal engraving covers the inscription that is printed by stamping, which nearly always only contains script rather than images. Other decoration of the seal itself was not intended to be reproduced. The iconography of gems is similar to that of coins, though more varied. Early gems mostly show animals. Gods, satyrs , and mythological scenes were common, and famous statues often represented – much modern knowledge of

684-517: A number of gems owned by St Albans Abbey , including one large Late Roman imperial cameo (now lost) called Kaadmau which was used to induce overdue childbirths – it was slowly lowered, with a prayer to St Alban, on its chain down the woman's cleavage, as it was believed that the infant would flee downwards to escape it, a belief in accordance with the views of the "father of mineralogy", Georgius Agricola (1494–1555) on jasper . Some gems were engraved, mostly with religious scenes in intaglio, during

760-580: A related development in Minoan seals , which are often very fine. The Greek tradition emerged in Ancient Greek art under Minoan influence on mainland Helladic culture, and reached an apogee of subtlety and refinement in the Hellenistic period . Pre- Hellenic Ancient Egyptian seals tend to have inscriptions in hieroglyphs rather than images. The biblical Book of Exodus describes the form of

836-631: A relief image is more impressive than an intaglio one; in the earlier form the recipient of a document saw this in the impressed sealing wax, while in the later reliefs it was the owner of the seal who kept it for himself, probably marking the emergence of gems meant to be collected or worn as jewellery pendants in necklaces and the like, rather than used as seals – later ones are sometimes rather large to use to seal letters. However inscriptions are usually still in reverse ("mirror-writing") so they only read correctly on impressions (or by viewing from behind with transparent stones). This aspect also partly explains

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912-526: A ring; intaglio designs register most clearly when viewed by the recipient of a letter as an impression in hardened wax. A finely carved seal was practical, as it made forgery more difficult – the distinctive personal signature did not really exist in antiquity. Gems were mostly cut by using abrasive powder from harder stones in conjunction with a hand-drill, probably often set in a lathe . Emery has been mined for abrasive powder on Naxos since antiquity. Some early types of seal were cut by hand, rather than

988-402: A sad confession for any art-historian." Other Renaissance gems reveal their date by showing mythological scenes derived from literature that were not part of the visual repertoire in classical times, or borrowing compositions from Renaissance paintings, and using "compositions with rather more figures than any ancient engraver would have tolerated or attempted". Among artists, the wealthy Rubens

1064-519: A salt cellar. Most of the hoard is now in the Museum of London , with some items held by the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum . The location where the hoard was found is thought to have been the premises of a Jacobean goldsmith , and the hoard is generally considered to have been a jeweller's working stock buried in the cellar during the English Civil War . Cheapside

1140-531: A spy for England in Italy". Among his contemporaries, Stosch made his lasting impression with Gemmæ Antiquæ Cælatæ ( Pierres antiques graveés ) (1724), in which Bernard Picart 's engravings reproduced seventy antique carved hardstones like onyx, jasper and carnelian from European collections. He also encouraged Johann Lorenz Natter (1705–1763) whom Stosch set to copying ancient carved gems in Florence. Frederick

1216-585: A temple or church become the property of that institution, and may be used to its benefit. Intaglio (jewellery) An engraved gem , frequently referred to as an intaglio , is a small and usually semi-precious gemstone that has been carved, in the Western tradition normally with images or inscriptions only on one face. The engraving of gemstones was a major luxury art form in the ancient world , and an important one in some later periods. Strictly speaking, engraving means carving in intaglio (with

1292-819: Is in the Treasury of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice . Many of these retain the medieval mounts which adapted them for liturgical use. Like the Coupe des Ptolémées , most objects in European museums lost these when they became objects of classicist interest from the Renaissance onwards, or when the mounts were removed for the value of the materials, as happened to many in the French Revolution . The collection of 827 engraved gems of Pope Paul II , which included

1368-500: Is more in keeping with the popular idea of " buried treasure ". Votive hoards are different from the above in that they are often taken to represent permanent abandonment, in the form of purposeful deposition of items, either all at once or over time for ritual purposes, without intent to recover them . Furthermore, votive hoards need not be "manufactured" goods, but can include organic amulets and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by

1444-419: Is now beneath One New Change . The hoard demonstrates the international trade in luxury goods in the period, including gemstones from sources across South America, Asia and Europe: emerald from Colombia, topaz and amazonite from Brazil; spinel , iolite and chrysoberyl from Sri Lanka , Indian diamond , Burmese ruby , Afghan lapis lazuli , Persian turquoise , pearls from Bahrain , peridot from

1520-627: Is represented in all or most early cultures from the area, and the Indus Valley civilization . The cylinder seal , whose design appears only when it is rolled over damp clay, from which the flat ring type developed, was the usual form in Mesopotamia , Assyria and other cultures, and spread to the Aegean and Minoan world , including parts of Greece and Cyprus . These were made in various types of stone, not all hardstone, and gold rings were

1596-467: Is shown, including the eyelashes on one male head, perhaps a portrait. Four gems signed by Dexamenos of Chios are the finest of the period, two showing herons . Relief carving became common in 5th century BC Greece, and gradually most of the spectacular carved gems in the Western tradition were in relief, although the Sassanian and other traditions remained faithful to the intaglio form. Generally

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1672-566: The Natural History of Pliny the Elder give a summary art history of the Greek and Roman tradition, and of Roman collecting. According to Pliny Marcus Aemilius Scaurus (praetor 56 BC) was the first Roman collector. As in later periods objects carved in the round from semi-precious stone were regarded as a similar category of object; these are also known as hardstone carvings . One of

1748-646: The East India Company . Lindsey was involved in litigation with Polman's Dutch heirs, but he died at the Battle of Edgehill in 1642. Goldsmith's Row was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The buildings were reconstructed by the Goldsmiths' Company in 1667, and were redeveloped in 1912. The hoard was discovered by workmen in the remains of an old cellar beneath the building. The site

1824-491: The Gonzagas of Mantua (later owned by Lord Arundel), the 2nd Earl of Bessborough , and the brother of Lord Chesterfield , who himself warned his son in one of his Letters against "days lost in poring upon imperceptible intaglios and cameos". The collection, including its single most famous cameo, the " Marlborough gem " depicting an initiation of Cupid and Psyche, was dispersed after a sale in 1899, fortunately timed for

1900-720: The Portland Vase , as a cheaper material for cameos, and one that allowed consistent and predictable layers on even round objects. During the European Middle Ages antique engraved gems were one classical art form which was always highly valued, and a large but unknown number of ancient gems have (unlike most surviving classical works of art) never been buried and then excavated. Gems were used to decorate elaborate pieces of goldsmith work such as votive crowns , book-covers and crosses, sometimes very inappropriately given their subject matter. Matthew Paris illustrated

1976-610: The Royal Collection . The collections of Charles Towneley , Richard Payne Knight and Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode were bought by or bequeathed to the British Museum , founding their very important collection. But the most famous English collection was that formed by the 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739–1817), "which the Duke kept in his bedroom and resorted to as a relief from his ambitious wife, his busy sister and his many children". This included collections formerly owned by

2052-535: The Susanna Crystal , to be viewed through the gem from the unengraved side, so their inscriptions were reversed like the seals. In wills and inventories, engraved gems were often given pride of place at the head of a list of treasures. Some gems in a remarkably effective evocation of classical style were made in Southern Italy for the court of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor in the first half of

2128-461: The hoshen , a ceremonial breastplate worn by the high priest, bearing twelve gems engraved with the names of the Twelve tribes of Israel . Round or oval Greek gems (along with similar objects in bone and ivory) are found from the 8th and 7th centuries BC, usually with animals in energetic geometric poses, often with a border marked by dots or a rim. Early examples are mostly in softer stones. Gems of

2204-515: The menorah . Many gems are inscribed in the Islamic world, typically with verses from the Koran , and sometimes gems in the Western tradition just contain inscriptions. Many Asian and Middle Eastern cultures have their own traditions, although for example the important Chinese tradition of carved gemstones and hardstones, especially jade carving , is broader than the European one of concentration on

2280-592: The "Felix gem" of Diomedes with the Palladium , was acquired by Lorenzo il Magnifico ; the Medici collection included many other gems and was legendary, valued in inventories much higher than his Botticellis . Somewhat like Chinese collectors, Lorenzo had all his gems inscribed with his name. The Gonzaga Cameo passed through a series of famous collections before coming to rest in the Hermitage . First known in

2356-526: The 13th century, several in the Cabinet des Médailles in Paris. Meanwhile, the church led the development of large, often double-sided, metal seal matrices for wax seals that were left permanently attached to charters and similar legal documents, dangling by a cord, though smaller ring seals that were broken when a letter was opened remained in use. It is not clear to what extent this also continued practices in

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2432-420: The 6th century are more often oval, with a scarab back (in the past this type was called a "scarabaeus"), and human or divine figures as well as animals; the scarab form was apparently adopted from Phoenicia . The forms are sophisticated for the period, despite the usually small size of the gems. In the 5th century gems became somewhat larger, but still only 2-3 centimetres tall. Despite this, very fine detail

2508-528: The British aristocrats he tutored in connoisseurship; his own collection was described in A.F. Gori , Le gemme antiche di Anton Maria Zanetti (Venice, 1750), illustrated with eighty plates of engravings from his own drawings. Baron Philipp von Stosch (1691–1757), a Prussian who lived in Rome and then Florence, was a major collector, as well as a dealer in engraved gems: "busy, unscrupulous, and in his spare time

2584-483: The Great had opened up new trade routes to the Greek world and increased the range of gemstones available. Roman gems generally continued Hellenistic styles, and can be hard to date, until their quality sharply declines at the end of the 2nd century AD. Philosophers are sometimes shown; Cicero refers to people having portraits of their favourite on their cups and rings. The Romans invented cameo glass , best known from

2660-631: The Great of Prussia bought Stosch's collection in 1765 and built the Antique Temple in the park of the Sanssouci Palace to house his collections of ancient sculpture, coins and over 4,000 gems – the two were naturally often grouped together. The gems are now in the Antikensammlung Berlin . The collection of Joseph Smith , British consul in Venice was bought by King George III of Great Britain and remains in

2736-731: The Great 's collection is in the Hermitage Museum ; one large collection she had bought was the gems from the Orléans Collection . Louis XV of France hired Dominique Vivant to assemble a collection for Madame de Pompadour . In the eighteenth century British aristocrats were able to outcompete even the agents for royal and princely collectors on the Continent, aided by connoisseur-dealers like Count Antonio Maria Zanetti and Philipp von Stosch . Zanetti travelled Europe in pursuit of gems hidden in private collections for

2812-687: The Hellenistic repertoire of subjects, though portraits in contemporary styles were also produced. Famous collectors begin with King Mithridates VI of Pontus (d. 63 BC), whose collection was part of the booty of Pompey the Great , who donated it to the Temple of Jupiter in Rome. Julius Caesar was determined to excel Pompey in this as in other areas, and later gave six collections to his own Temple of Venus Genetrix ; according to Suetonius gems were among his varied collecting passions. Many later emperors also collected gems. Chapters 4-6 of Book 37 of

2888-581: The King of Prussia which now form the Daktyliothek Poniatowski in Berlin , where they were recognised as modern in 1832, mainly because the signatures of ancient artists from very different times were found on gems in too consistent a style. As in other fields, not many ancient artists' names are known from literary sources, although some gems are signed. According to Pliny, Pyrgoteles was

2964-544: The Portland Vase and the Marlborough gem , a famous head of Antinous , and interpreted in jasperware casts from antique gems by James Tassie. John Flaxman 's neoclassical designs for jasperware were carried out in the extremely low relief typical of cameo production. Some other porcelain imitated three-layer cameos purely by paint, even in implausible objects like a flat Sèvres tea-tray of 1840. Gems were

3040-482: The Red Sea; Bohemian and Hungarian opal , garnet and amethyst . Relatively few pearls have survived in good condition after being buried for approximately 350 years. Large stones were frequently set in box-bezels on enamelled rings. Most of the gemstones are cabochon cut, but there are a few with more modern faceted cuts , including rose cut and star cut . A particularly large Colombian emerald, originally

3116-509: The Roman statues and sarcophagi being newly excavated, antique gems were prime sources for artists eager to regain a classical figurative vocabulary. Cast bronze copies of gems were made, which circulated around Italy, and later Europe. Among very many examples of borrowings that can be traced confidently, the Felix or Diomedes gem owned by Lorenzo de' Medici (see below), with an unusual pose,

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3192-559: The advice of Francesco Maria Zanetti and Francesco Ficoroni ; 170 of the Carlisle gems, both Classical and post-Classical, were purchased in 1890 for the British Museum . By the mid-eighteenth century prices had reached such a level that major collections could only be formed by the very wealthy; lesser collectors had to make do with collecting plaster casts , which was also very popular, or buying one of many sumptuously illustrated catalogues of collections that were published. Catherine

3268-576: The ancient world. The late medieval French and Burgundian courts collected and commissioned gems, and began to use them for portraits. The British Museum has what is probably a seated portrait of John, Duke of Berry in intaglio on a sapphire , and the Hermitage has a cameo head of Charles VII of France . Interest had also revived in Early Renaissance Italy, where Venice soon became a particular centre of production. Along with

3344-958: The burial of hoards, of which the most famous are the Hoxne Hoard , Suffolk; the Mildenhall Treasure , the Fishpool Hoard , Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the Cuerdale Hoard , Lancashire, all preserved in the British Museum . Prudence Harper of the Metropolitan Museum of Art voiced some practical reservations about hoards at the time of the Soviet exhibition of Scythian gold in New York City in 1975. Writing of

3420-484: The cabinet of the Flemish antiquary Abraham Gorlaeus in 1609, and engraved gems featured among the antiquities assembled by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel . Later in the century William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire , formed a collection of gems that is still conserved at Chatsworth . In the eighteenth century a more discerning cabinet of gems was assembled by Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle , acting upon

3496-648: The cameo is Alexandrian work of the 3rd century BC, or a Julio-Claudian imitation of the style from the 1st century AD. Three of the largest cameo gems from antiquity were created for members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and seem to have survived above ground since antiquity. The large Gemma Augustea appeared in 1246 in the treasury of the Basilique St-Sernin, Toulouse . In 1533, King François I appropriated it and moved it to Paris, where it soon disappeared around 1590. Not long thereafter it

3572-604: The collecting of impressions in plaster or wax from gems, which may be easier to appreciate than the original. The cameo, which is rare in intaglio form, seems to have reached Greece around the 3rd century; the Farnese Tazza is the only major surviving Hellenistic example (depending on the date assigned to the Gonzaga Cameo – see below), but other glass-paste imitations with portraits suggest that gem-type cameos were made in this period. The conquests of Alexander

3648-469: The collection of Isabella d'Este , it passed to the Gonzaga Dukes of Mantua , Emperor Rudolf II , Queen Christina of Sweden , Cardinal Decio Azzolini , Livio Odescalchi , Duke of Bracciano , and Pope Pius VI before Napoleon carried it off to Paris, where his Empress Joséphine gave it to Alexander I of Russia after Napoleon's downfall, as a token of goodwill. It remains disputed whether

3724-420: The design cut into the flat background of the stone), but relief carvings (with the design projecting out of the background as in nearly all cameos ) are also covered by the term. This article uses cameo in its strict sense, to denote a carving exploiting layers of differently coloured stone. The activity is also called gem carving and the artists gem-cutters . References to antique gems and intaglios in

3800-438: The engraved gem. Another offshoot of the mania for engraved gems is the fine-grained slightly translucent stoneware called jasperware that was developed by Josiah Wedgwood and perfected in 1775. Though white-on-blue matte jasperware is the most familiar Wedgwood ceramic line, still in production today and widely imitated since the mid-19th century, white-on-black was also produced. Wedgwood made notable jasperware copies of

3876-499: The first time in more than 100 years at the Museum of London , from October 2013 to April 2014. Hoard Hoards provide a useful method of providing dates for artifacts through association as they can usually be assumed to be contemporary (or at least assembled during a decade or two), and therefore used in creating chronologies. Hoards can also be considered an indicator of the relative degree of unrest in ancient societies. Thus conditions in 5th and 6th century Britain spurred

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3952-574: The hoard between his ennoblement in November 1640 and the Great Fire of London in September 1666, which destroyed the buildings above. Most of the gold is the "Paris touch" standard of 19.2 carats (80 per cent pure). The workmen who discovered the hoard sold items to a man they knew as "Stoney Jack", the antiques dealer and pawnshop owner George Fabian Lawrence, who frequently paid labourers cash for interesting finds from London building sites. He

4028-566: The largest, the Coupe des Ptolémées was probably donated to the Basilica of Saint-Denis , near Paris, by Charles the Bald , as the inscription on its former gem-studded gold Carolingian mounting stated; it may have belonged to Charlemagne . One of the best collections of such vessels, though mostly plain without carved decoration, was looted from Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade , and

4104-545: The later Archaic period. Portraits of monarchs are found from the Hellenistic period onwards, although as they do not usually have identifying inscriptions, many fine ones cannot be identified with a subject. In the Roman Imperial period, portraits of the imperial family were often produced for the court circle, and many of these have survived, especially a number of spectacular cameos from the time of Augustus . As private objects, produced no doubt by artists trained in

4180-536: The manufacture and sale of gold and jewellery in medieval London. Kris Lane has speculated that the hoard may have been brought back to England from the East Indies in 1631, having been assembled by a Dutch jeweller named Gerald Polman. He died on the journey, and his chest of jewels was taken by the carpenter's mate on the ship, Christopher Adams. Adams was eventually forced to surrender the box and its contents to Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey , Treasurer of

4256-422: The nature of the goods themselves (from animal bones to diminutive artifacts), the places buried (being often associated with watery places, burial mounds and boundaries), and the treatment of the deposit (careful or haphazard placement and whether ritually destroyed/broken). Valuables dedicated to the use of a deity (and thus classifiable as "votive") were not always permanently abandoned. Valuable objects given to

4332-619: The new American museums and provided the core of the collection of the Metropolitan in New York and elsewhere, with the largest group still together being about 100 in the Walters Art Museum , Baltimore. Prince Stanisław Poniatowski (1754–1833) "commissioned about 2500 gems and encouraged the belief that they were, in fact, ancient." He presented a set of 419 plaster impressions of his collection of Poniatowski gems to

4408-496: The number of gems that were not what they seemed to be scared collectors. Among the last practitioners was James Robertson , who sensibly moved into the new art of photography . Perhaps the best known gem engraver of the 20th century, working in a contemporary idiom, is the British artist Ronald Pennell , whose work is held in the British Crafts Council Collection among many others. Cameo glass

4484-550: The only artist allowed to carve gems for the seal rings of Alexander the Great . Most of the most famous Roman artists were Greeks, like Dioskurides, who is thought to have produced the Gemma Augustea, and is recorded as the artist of the matching signet rings of Augustus – very carefully controlled, they allowed orders to be issued in his name by his most trusted associates. Other works survive signed by him (rather more than are all likely to be genuine), and his son Hyllos

4560-523: The original group. Such "dealer's hoards" can be highly misleading, but better understanding of archaeology amongst collectors, museums and the general public is gradually making them less common and more easily identified. Hoards may be of precious metals , coinage , tools or less commonly, pottery or glass vessels. There are various classifications depending on the nature of the hoard: A founder's hoard contains broken or unfit metal objects, ingots , casting waste, and often complete objects, in

4636-616: The period both in Byzantium and Europe. In the West production revived from the Carolingian period , when rock crystal was the commonest material. The Lothair Crystal (or Suzanna Crystal , British Museum , 11.5 cm diameter), clearly not designed for use as a seal, is the best known of 20 surviving Carolingian large intaglio gems with complex figural scenes, although most were used for seals. Several crystals were designed, like

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4712-445: The poses of lost Greek cult statues such as Athena Promachos comes from the study of gems, which often have clearer images than coins. A 6th(?) century BC Greek gem already shows Ajax committing suicide, with his name inscribed. The story of Heracles was, as in other arts, the most common source of narrative subjects. A scene may be intended as the subject of an early Archaic gem, and certainly appears on 6th century examples from

4788-413: The recessed cut surface is usually very well preserved, and microscopic examination is revealing of the technique used. The colour of several gemstones can be enhanced by a number of artificial methods, using heat, sugar and dyes. Many of these can be shown to have been used since antiquity – since the 7th millennium BC in the case of heating. The technique has an ancient tradition in the Near East , and

4864-417: The same types of sardonyx and other hardstones and using virtually the same techniques, produced classicizing works of glyptic art, often intended as forgeries, in such quantity that they compromised the market for them, as Gisela Richter observed in 1922. Even today, Sir John Boardman admits that "We are sometimes at a loss to know whether what we are looking at belongs to the 1st or the 15th century AD,

4940-401: The size of an apple, had been hollowed out to accommodate a Swiss watch movement dated to around 1600, signed by G. Ferlite. The items include a Byzantine gemstone cameo , a cameo of Queen Elizabeth I , an emerald parrot, and some fake gemstones made of carved and dyed quartz . A small red intaglio stone seal bears the arms of William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford , dating the burial of

5016-444: The so-called "Maikop treasure" (acquired from three separate sources by three museums early in the twentieth century, the Berliner Museen , the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology , and the Metropolitan Museum, New York), Harper warned: By the time "hoards" or "treasures" reach museums from the antiquities market, it often happens that miscellaneous objects varying in date and style have become attached to

5092-476: The tradition of Hellenistic monarchies, their iconography is less inhibited than the public state art of the period about showing divine attributes as well as sexual matters. The identity and interpretation of figures in the Gemma Augustea remains unclear. A number of gems from the same period contain scenes apparently from the lost epic on the Sack of Troy , of which the finest is by Dioskurides ( Chatsworth House ). Renaissance and later gems remain dominated by

5168-403: Was a notable collector. Engraved gems occur in the Bible , especially when the hoshen and ephod worn by the High Priest are described; though these were inscribed with the names of the tribes of Israel in letters, rather than any images. A few identifiably Jewish gems survive from the classical world, including Persia, mostly with the owner's name in Hebrew, but some with symbols such as

5244-664: Was also a gem engraver. The Anichini family were leading artists in Venice and elsewhere in the 15th and 16th centuries. Many Renaissance artists no doubt kept their activities quiet, as they were passing their products off as antique. Other specialist carvers included Giovanni Bernardi (1494–1553), Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (c. 1500–1565), Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli (1662–1719), the German-Italian Anton Pichler (1697–1779) and his sons Giovanni and Luigi , Charles Christian Reisen (Anglo-Norwegian, 1680–1725). Other sculptors also carved gems, or had someone in their workshop who did. Leone Leoni said he personally spent two months on

5320-403: Was appointed by Guildhall Museum to seek out new items for its collection and became Inspector of Excavations for the nascent London Museum in 1911. The Goldsmiths' Company did not assert their ownership of the finds, and no treasure trove inquest was held. Lewis Vernon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt provided the funds for the London Museum to purchase most of the Cheapside Hoard, though

5396-404: Was at the commercial heart of the City of London in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, with shops for the sale of luxury goods, including many goldsmiths . The location, a row of houses on the south of Cheapside, to the east of St Paul's Cathedral and to the west of St Mary-le-Bow , was owned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths . Known as Goldsmith's Row, it was formerly the centre of

5472-542: Was copied by Leonardo da Vinci and may well have provided the "starting point" for one of Michelangelo 's ignudi on the Sistine Chapel ceiling . Another of Lorenzo's gems supplied, probably via a drawing by Perugino , a pose used by Raphael . By the 16th century carved and engraved gems were keenly collected across Europe for dedicated sections of a cabinet of curiosities , and their production revived, in classical styles; 16th-century gem-cutters working with

5548-667: Was fenced for 12,000 gold pieces to Emperor Rudolph II; it remains in Vienna , alongside the Gemma Claudia . The largest flat engraved gem known from antiquity is the Great Cameo of France , which entered (or re-entered) the French royal collection in 1791 from the treasury of Sainte-Chapelle , where it had been since at least 1291. In England, a false dawn of gem collecting was represented by Henry, Prince of Wales ' purchase of

5624-561: Was invented by the Romans in about 30BC to imitate engraved hardstone cameos, with the advantage that consistent layering could be achieved even on round vessels – impossible with natural gemstones. It was however very difficult to manufacture and surviving pieces, most famously the Portland Vase , are actually much rarer than Roman gemstone cameos. The technique was revived in the 18th and especially 19th centuries in England and elsewhere, and

5700-507: Was most effectively used in French Art Nouveau glass that made no attempt to follow classical styles. The Middle Ages, which lived by charters and other sealed documents, were at least as keen on using seals as the ancient world, now creating them for towns and church institutions, but they normally used metal matrices and signet rings . However some objects, like a 13th-century Venetian Seven Sleepers of Ephesus , mimicked

5776-471: Was published in 1791, with 15,800 items. There are complete sets of the impressions in the Hermitage, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and in Edinburgh. Other types of imitation became fashionable for ladies' brooches , such as ceramic cameos by Josiah Wedgwood in jasperware . The engraved gem fell permanently out of fashion from about the 1860s, perhaps partly as a growing realization of

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