Beschreibung:

A RARE DEMI-PARURE OF FRENCH REVIVALIST TURQUOISE CAMEO, ROSE-CUT DIAMOND AND GOLD JEWELLERY Comprising a necklace suspending five graduated turquoise cameos carved with bacchantes and the head of Hera reserved in rose-cut diamonds with oval bead and wirework mounts, the central cameo with tasselled panel and granulated initials HPA, the mesh necklace with reeded cylindrical spacers between bead and wirework triangular drops, the tasselled ear pendants en suite, circa 1870, the necklace 15½in. long, ear pendants 2¾in. overall height, in original red leather fitted case (one cameo cracked, some discolouration to turquoise, three tassels missing, ear pendants with later screw fitments) By Eugène Fontenay unsigned Eugène Fontenay (1823-1887) is best known for his work in the archeological style which is close to that of Castellani. He was apprenticed to the Parisian jeweller Dutreih, but the main influence on his career was the classical gold jewellery in the Italian Campana Collection, purchased by Napoleon III for France in 1860 and then placed on public exhibition in Paris. H. Tait (ed) The Art of the Jeweller, A Catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift to the British Museum, 1984, no. 983 (footnote) states 'Eugène Fontenay was one of the most interesting of the French goldsmiths of the 19th Century being both highly technically accomplished as well as profoundly knowledgeable in the history of his craft'. An album of photographs of jewels by Fontenay in the Musée des Arts Decoratifs shows a pair of earrings similar in style to the present examples thus confirming the authorship of the present suite. Although his work is now scarce it is not unusual to find unsigned pieces by him. His work was also retailed by Boucheron. Cf. C. Gere, Victorian Jewellery Design, 1972, pl. 48 and The Belle Epoque of French Jewellery 1850-1910 (1990), no.39 (2)