Posted 10 years ago
Bluboi
(103 items)
Starting in the early 19th century, Antonio Aguatti fundamentally changed the art of micromosaics by increasing the variety of tesserae shapes and blended tints by heat-fusing multiple strands of glass. Tesserae could now function as brushstrokes, simulating animal hair, feathers and foliage.
These two dogs, both set in black glass, show the advances in this medium via curved tesserae resembling fur. The whippet on the left, though, is earlier than the spaniel, as the foliage is still single-colored tiles mixed together to create the optical illusion of grass. The spaniel is more advanced as there are blended tiles and the dog generally looks more fluid.
Just extraordinary and exquisite!
Your collection is all class.
Thank you racer!
They are truly incredible. Thank you so much for sharing them here. I have never seen such beautiful work. How exciting. Do you you have more of this type of micro mosaic in your collection? I would love to see more if you would be so kind. I have an old pin that was ''grand tour'' as it was explained to me. If I shoot it will you take a look at it for me? Mine is set in blue stone in gold and the subject matter is an architectural piece, temple, I think. I have seen loads of the chunky ones but I have only seen the better ones at the place in Somerset house? In London. The name will come but apparently not now. Sorry. There is a large collection there. Downstairs from the Impressionist painting collection. As I remember, it has been years though.
Awwwesome! And, very interesting to see the evolution in tesserae!
All, thanks for your comments and loves!
Lisa, I have a few more micros (a couple of florals, a bacchus, St Peter's Square), but not a huge collection. I posted an Aguatti of Beatrice Cenci which is very lovely -- click on my link and you can find it. The end of the Napoleonic War enabled a huge upsurge of tourists to Europe, including Rome. And like all tourists, people wanted to buy local wares, so in Rome, the micromosaic and cameo jewelers moved from classical themes to "local" themes. Some of the most popular are micros of locales around Rome, so your pieces is most likely from the Grand Tour era. Many of these pieces are quite good, but as demand increased, there were less expensive version made -- if you look at micros for sale, it is easy to see the differences between the ones made by artisans and those for quick sale.
Those set in blue or red glass are less common than the ones in black; every now and then I find one set in goldstone. Please post a link to a photo!
As far as the best! The Gilbert Collection is amazing and is located in London. It used to be at Somerset House, but was moved to the V&A Museum. Anyone who is in London should make this a must-do visit. You can see a few examples of the collection here: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-rosalinde-and-arthur-gilbert-collection/ There is also a very detailed book about micros and the Gilbert Collection, well worth owning.
Massinelli, Anna Maria, and Jeanette Hanisee Gabriel. Hardstones: The Gilbert Collection. London: Philip Wilson Pub. in association with The Gilbert Collection, 2000. NAL press mark: 604.AA.0618
Incredible and expensive examples of very old Micro Mosaic, beauties!
I like to appoint you my modest collection which a few interesting jewelry:
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/user/Agram.m/micro-mosaic-jewelry
For someone who wants to see an amazing, huge collection of micros, go to Agram.m's link above. What would be fun for all is to look at the micros in detail and see which show the earlier, straight style and those which are later and more sophisticated (variety of shapes and blended colors). Thank you for sharing your link!