Renaissance-revival gold, opal cameo, garnet and enamel brooch, Carlo Giuliano, circa 1890

The opal cameo carved with the profile of Minerva within a lozenge-shaped brooch of openwork gold, applied with black, white and pale blue enamel, the terminals set with two triangular garnets, the reverse engraved and enameled and with a glazed locket compartment, the cameo by Wilhelm Schmidt, mounting by Giuliano, unsigned. With original velvet case signed C. Giuliano. 

Artists' Jewellery, Pre-Raphaelite to Arts and Crafts, Wartski, London, March, 1989, no. 74 and Asprey, New York, October 1989, no. 43.

Wilhelm Schmidt (1845-1938) was originally from Idar in south-west Germany, a town known for mineral and gemstone trading, agate polishing and engraving. At the age of fifteen, he was sent to a cousins’ workshop in Paris where he first learned the art of cameo cutting from the master Arsène whose idealized classical style had more in common with works of Renaissance masters than that of the ancients. After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war, Wilhelm and his brother Louis, a mineral importer, emigrated to London and set up a business at Hatton Garden. The move was well timed given the prosperity of Victorian England and the popularity of ‘archaeological’ jewelry which resulted in a demand for engraved gems by many first rank jewelers. Schmidt was known for his skill in carving unusual stones such as labradorite and claimed to have invented a new and difficult technique for carving opal and opal matrix. Although there is no complete record of Schmidt’s work for individual jewelers, it is known that he collaborated with John Brogden whose opal cameo necklace won a gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition in 1878.  See ‘Wilhelm Schmidt, the Last Neo-Classical Gem-Engraver’ by Gertrud Seidmann, Apollo, CXXVII, No. 317, July 1988.