• Material: Sardonyx shell, 15k gold tested.
• Size:  2" by 1 5/8" at the widest point, or 2 5/8" considering the two bails.
• Date and Origin: Circa 1850 Italy.
• Conditions:  Immaculate. Signed on the back by the artist, Carnesecchi. There is a detachable bail that can be removed when the cameo is worn as a brooch.

Museum Quality large shell cameo depicting the Winter. The cameo is after a statue entitled  'Winter' by Emil Wolff, 1847. Wolff, a noted German sculptor, was active in Rome from 1822 until his death in 1879. The sculpture depicts a young boy draped in a Hercules' Nemean lionskin, with Hercules' attributes of a staff and the golden apples of the Hesperides, the fruit of immortality. Wolff's sculpture was no doubt influenced by an ancient statue of the child Hercules in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. You can see the pictures of the original subject, the first one is the original sculpture titled 'Der Winter', (The Winter) E. Wolff  Roma 1847, the second one is the Statue of the child Hercules [3rd century AD], Capitoline Museum, Rome, the third one is a funerary monument depicting Winter,  Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore.
Exquisite execution of a most unsual subject and in an unusual drop shape, in a high carat gold mount. The carving is very high relieved and the proportions and all the wonderfully carved details say that this cameo was carved by a true artist, Carnesecchi. The face of the young boy is so expressive and well made that he really seems he's thinking to something. The way that he holds the lionskin on his shoulders really makes you think that he feels cold. The lion pelt is wonderfully made, if you look well you'll see all the hair perfectly carved. He's holding, in the other hand, an apple, the other symbol of Hercules, it is the Apple of the Hesperides. Look then at the perfection of his legs, all the muscles can be seen, and of his feet, a real marvel. This is a rarest cameo, in more than twenty years of trade I have found only two cameos depicting this subject. A piece who can really stay in any museum, a cameo for true collectors not to be missed.