brooch;
mosaic
- Museum number
- 1978,1002.510
- Description
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Gold brooch with a raised border of ivy leaves and pellets and set with a glass micromosaic of fruit and leaves in green, orange, pink and purple inlaid into white opaline glass. The maker's name is scratched on the reverse and part of a papal keys mark is on the pin. Image bottom right.
- Production date
- 1850 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 5.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from catalogue of the Hull Grundy Gift (Gere et al 1984) no 933:
Gioacchino Barberi was born in Rome in 1783 and died on 27 January 1857: his studio was at Piazza di Spagna 99 (see Petochi 1981, p.45). Despite the coincidence of names, he has no connection with the Cavaliere Michelangelo Barberi, who was the most famous mosaicist of the Roman School in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1867, Luigi Barberi, son of Gioacchino, also jeweller and gem engraver, is listed in Murray's Handbook to Rome at the same address; his shop is described as 'one of the best for the ordinary class of mosaic ornaments'. He last appears in the handbooks in 1881.
Both this panel and the 'Fox and Grapes' (934) are executed in the minutest tesserae. This mosaic is notable for its use of tesserae with up to four different tones in a single tessera (see 934), especially successful in suggesting the roundness of the fruit in the central bunch of grapes, where each grape is indicated by a single round tessera with three shades of green, orange or brown and with a white highlight. The surface of the inlay is so smooth that it is almost impossible to detect some of the smaller tessera without magnification, owing to the subtle shading. (Judy Rudoe)
See 'Jewellery 1789-1910' by Shirley Bury 1991, vol. I, p.236, n.84.
- Location
- On display (G47/dc8/p1/no13)
- Acquisition date
- 1978-1981
- Acquisition notes
- N Bloom & Son, 40 Albemarle Street, London W1. Original invoice for £150 to Anne Hull Grundy dated 18.3.1973, described as 'Victorian gold mounted glass mosaic brooch, G Barbieri '.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1978,1002.510
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: HG.510 (masterlist number)