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Gold and pearl brooch, Carlo Giuliano, 1874-1895
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
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Description
- Carlo Giuliano
Designed as two Erotes, each playing with a pearl ball while balancing on either side of a ladder, signed C.G. With original fitted case signed C. Giuliano.
Exhibited
The Triumph of Love, The International Silver and Jewellery Fair and Seminar, Park Lane Hotel, London, February 1992, no. 43.
Literature
Geoffrey C. Munn, The Triumph of Love, Jewelry 1530-1930, p. 76.
Catalogue Note
The ladder is a rare form in jewelry design and is thought to be emblematic of the aspirations of love.
A chalcedony intaglio in the British Museum, purchased from Castellani in 1872, featuring four Erotes in a procession, is illustrated by Richter, Engraved Gems of the Romans, no. 148. A second intaglio of red jasper features Erotes erecting a building, see Spier, Ancient Gems and Finger Rings, no. 363, which notes that no similar scene on gems appears to be attested, but it recalls the construction of a mausoleum as depicted on the Flavian period relief of the Haterii in the Vatican.