An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus. - image-1
An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus. - image-2
An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus. - image-1An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus. - image-2

Lot 508 Dα

An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus.

Auction 1229 - overview Cologne
16.11.2023, 16:00 - Jewellery and Watches
Estimate: 800 € - 1.200 €
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An 18k gold and soapstone Neoclassical cameo brooch depicting a princely couple as Mars and Venus.

Oval cameo with portraits facing right in a cord border. No hallmarks. Minor chips to the cameo. In later mountings. 3.7 x 3.1 cm. Weight 14.01 g.
Germany, ca. 1810.

In her letter enclosed with the cameo, the Munich gem expert, Dr. Ingrid Weber-Szeiklies, suggests that the sitter could be Eugène de Beauhamais, the adopted son of Napoleon I and his wife Augusta Maria, Princess of Bavaria. Eugène de Beauhamais was a successful general in the Napoleonic Wars and, in her opinion, the cameo could indicate the appointment as Grand Duke of Frankfurt in 1810, "for it identifies the couple as princes and himself as warlord and has an official character with classical "reminiscences".

Certificate

Letter from Dr. Ingrid Szeiklies-Weber, former curator of medals and gems at the Munich State Coin Collection, dated June 9, 2006 with the historical classification, dating and attribution of the cameo.

Provenance

South German private collection.