Archaeological-revival gold and enamel tiara, Carlo and Arthur Giuliano, circa 1895

Estimate

25,000 - 35,000 USD

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Description

Designed as a Herakles knot of twisted wire accented with a central cabochon hessonite garnet and small rosettes enameled in green, flanked by segments of lighter and darker green cloisonné enamel, completed by three parallel rows of twisted gold forming ribbons, signed C.& A.G.

Provenance

Phillips, Son and Neale, London, December 5, 2002, lot 73.

Exhibited

Tiaras, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, March 21-July 14, 2002.

Literature

Geoffrey C. Munn, Tiaras, A History of Splendour, p. 251, pl. 225.

Geoffrey C. Munn, Tiaras, Past and Present, p. 78, pl. 55 and col. pl. pp. 68-69.

Catalogue Note

The design for this tiara is based on a diadem from Melos, made in the third century B.C., once in the Castellani collection, acquired by the British Museum in 1872. This prototype is illustrated in the catalogue Greek Gold, Jewelry of the Classical World, Williams and Ogden, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, p. 65, no. 18. It also appears on the cover and on page 85 of Jewelry, 7,000 Years, Hinks and Tait. Although the present tiara was made at the end of the 19th century, it was fashioned in a style popular several decades earlier, indicating that it may have been specially made for one of the many costume balls in vogue at the time.