The large group of 152 mixed size and colour grand tour paste intaglios, some of the mid eighteenth period, some nineteenth and some later reproductions, each showing a range of classical imagery reflecting the art, architecture, history, and culture, primarily of Italy, some portrait and some landscape, each with its own hanging loop for display.
Unknown.
Plaster intaglios were marketed in Italy during the 18th and 19th centuries as souvenirs for wealthy American and English tourists, usually young men, as keepsakes of their European Grand Tour holidays. The small plaster medallions were mounted into books and each medallion was numbered and documented with handwritten numbered notations telling which city or which attraction they had visited. Popular in the neoclassical period, and once regarded as a signal of wealth, Intaglios have been admired for hundred of years.
Visit Europe today and you are likely to come home with tasteless souvenirs whereas in the 18th century, the great age of the large and imposing country house, young men returned and transformed the decor and furnishings of their families’ country seats with their acquisitions with many became insatiable collectors.
This is a good opportunity to acquire such a large collection, which when grouped together in this way, lifts any wall from monotony to marvel in a blink of an eye.
The condition of each intaglio varies as per the photographs but they range from part-decayed to very good for the examples that are more contemporary. Some have small amounts of loss, with one example only half present. They all have mounting hooks for wall attachment and most have gathered some dirt and dust to the reliefs. More detail of the condition to each individual intaglio is available on request.
By appointment only.
