Giovanni Pichler

This finely engraved cameo compares with the Apollo Saettante, engraved by Giovanni Pichler circa 1786 for the brewer Samuel Whitbread, which was sold in these rooms on 7 December 2021, lot 62. The present gem, which is signed Pichler in Greek, is almost certainly by Giovanni and not his father Antonio or half brother Luigi (the latter who continued the workshop into the 19th century and was famed for his intaglios).

Giovanni Pichler was born in Naples and trained by his father Antonio Pichler in the art of gem engraving in Rome. In 1769 he was appointed gem engraver to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. Pichler's fame rapidly increased and he became a favourite of Grand Tourists. He also trained a number of the most famous engravers of the next generation including Filippo Rega and Antonio Berini. Upon his death in 1791 his workshop, which had become the pre-eminent gem engraving establishment in Rome, was inherited by his half brother Luigi Pichler. He went on to work for the Habsburg Imperial family in Vienna and so impressed the French court jeweller François-Régnault Nitot that the latter tried to persuade him to move to Paris. Luigi received many distinctions later in life including a diploma from the Academy of St Luke and membership of the Academy in Venice, as well as, in 1839, Knight's Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great and, in 1842, of the Order of St Sylvester.