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     JEWELRY and  PRECIOUS STONES HISTORY

Jewelry history, Asian jewelry history, gemstone history, jewelry beads, jewelry designers, jewelry diamonds, jewelry earrings, jewelry established, jewelry necklace

The ornate enameled copper objects included vases shaped like cornucopias or drinking horns, salt holders in the form of nautilus shells or sailing ships (known as nefs), and elaborate clock cases.
Antique Kundan Bangle gold silver diamonds enameled Larger objects were embellished with a cladding of numerous enameled plaques, for example multi-drawered ebony jewelry chests copied after Renaissance cabinets of curiosities, as well as	dainty items like snuffboxes, scent flasks, vinaigrettes, and caddy spoons. The height of this jewelry fashion was from about 1870 to the late 1890s. Here is typical Indian Mughal jewelry from	Indian Jewelry 19 century antique Mughal Necklace the 19. century
By 1900 the chief outlet for Viennese painted enamels was a range of charming novelty items for the drawing room or boudoir made with cast base-metal mounts, usually with simple motifs for the decoration. This twentieth-century range included miniature folding screens, small boxes shaped like chests of drawers (see Fig. 11), and chairs and tables on a dollhouse scale, often inset with tiny timepieces.

The nineteenth-century Vienna style followed the principle of enrichment by accumulation of ornament,

and therefore variations of metalworking or enameling techniques were used for each component. Some asymmetry was not considered inappropriate for complex assemblies constructed with bases, columns, central sections, and finials. This was thought to add to the fragile, antique appearance of these handmade objects. Asymmetry could also emphasize the singularity of every piece, in contrast to the streamlined, uniform ornaments made largely by machine, with which these nineteenth-century workshops were increasingly competing.

The impetus for the nineteenth-century revival arose in tandem with the need to repair earlier artwork, which, by the custom of the period required that damaged or corroded antiques be brought back to nearly pristine condition. This entailed making bases for vessels or adding figurines by replicating antique examples. The old craft techniques that had been reactivated to make undetectable repairs and match fragments could then be used to make replicas of entire pieces to attract new collectors.
The leading makers of these objects of vertu exhibited their outstanding products at international expositions to demonstrate that nineteenth-century craftsmanship could equal or even outdo that of past masters. With regard to methods of working, there was a secretive side to the art to guard against the suspicion that the output of the workshops extended to making convincing fakes. There were instances when copies of old pieces were dishonestly returned to trusting owners, while the originals, after refurbishment, were offered to other collectors. This deceptive procedure (for exceptional goldsmiths' items) was undertaken by Salomon Weininger (1822-1879), a Hungarian who was a leading dealer in antiquities in Vienna. However, he went too far with his deceptions, and was caught and imprisoned. Artisans who had worked for Weininger were understandably reticent about admitting it. However, some of the Vienna specialists who subsequently became well known for this style were perhaps once employed by Weininger.

Hermann Ratzersdorfer, who was established in Vienna from at least 1845 to 1894, set a high standard for the design of grand objects in the Renaissance revival manner (see Fig. 8). Ratzersdorfer was acclaimed for the ingenuity of such articles, which were exhibited to promote his workshop, and these relatively few objects display his mark, "HR," on the mounts. Already in his own time there were hints of a secondary production, of pieces that Ratzersdorfer made but did not mark. But such was his expertise in the old styles that these objects of vertu could pass for genuine antiques. In 1921 Frederick Litchfield wrote:</p> <pre> Some fifty or sixty years ago a jeweller of Vienna, named Ratzersdorfer, made a specialite of this kind of work [reproductions of cinquecento styles] and many of his earlier ... pieces are really excellent of their kind.... [For later work] Ratzersdorfer lowered his prices and ... instead of gold he worked in silver.... Ratzersdorfer was succeeded by some of his workmen, who set up in business for themselves, and made more or less successful reproductions of old models. The objects of art formed of cristal de roche, mounted with silver and enamel of the encrusted description, were made in considerable quantities.* </pre> <p>Jacob Bodemer (1777-1829), originally from Germany established himself in Vienna by 1799 and became one of the earliest makers of Renaissance style jewelry cabinets and boxes inset with enameled plaques. Therese Berger of Vienna made crystal cups and saucers as well as dishes with painted enamels in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. Karl Bank, who was active in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was another Viennese maker of objects with lapis lazuli and inlaid and painted enamels in the cinquecento manner. From the 1870s the most prominent Viennese firms for high quality work of this kind, especially painted enamels, were those founded by Hermann Bohm, Ludwig Pollitzer, and Simon Grunwald.                 Rubis, saphir, emerald, topaz ancient ring - Chennai
                                                                                                                                                                    India ring photo by pustule
Bohm was active from 1866 to 1922, using the mark "HB" (see Figs. 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, and 13). Originally in partnership with Pollitzer, Bohm headed the largest of the specialist Vienna workshops, with such a considerable output that contemporaries described the undertaking as a factory. He produced a variety of costly objects, including those with painted enamels chiefly illustrating allegorical scenes. These pieces were shown at several international exhibitions, including the Welt-Ausstellung in Vienna in 1873. They were widely exported to France, Switzerland, Italy, England, and the United States.

Pollitzer was especially noted for painted enamels, while Grunwald, established in Vienna from 1876 to 1903, advertised as a supplier of enamel wares and antique imitations (Antiquitaten-Imitationen), typically vessels with painted enamels and ornate handles. This firm also produced fine table clocks with cases in various styles, often with inlaid (basse taille) enamels or painted enamel plaques. Grunwald's pieces were awarded medals at several international exhibitions including a gold medal in 1879 at Teplitz (then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire), a town that attracted many fashionable people to the baths that were alleged to alleviate gout, rheumatoid ailments, and gunshot wounds.

The forte of the Viennese enamelers was their success in following the trend set by the interior decorators of mansions and great public buildings with regard to color schemes and pictorial themes from classical mythology. That repertory remained within the principles of good taste of the nineteenth century while allowing depictions of men with heroic physiques, voluptuous women draped in diaphanous robes, and putti, the symbols of earthly love, fluttering in the sky. The pictures were often bordered with arabesques and grotesques and were supplemented by tinted, patterned sections. The background colors for the patterns also echoed the fashions for luxurious wall ornamentation or sumptuous draperies, which favored muted pink, mauve, olive green, light blue, and pale straw yellow. These were, in fact, enamel tints that were technically among the most difficult to fuse flawlessly and evenly over large curved surfaces. Nonetheless the Vienna experts made a specialty of successfully using this range of hues.
Another highly successful Vienna variation was painting in enamels on what appears to be a gold ground, to emulate the Renaissance email en basse taille sur fond reserve. This had been a Renaissance technique for creating a frieze decoration with sunken enameled emblems worked into a reserve or smooth background of substantial gold foil. Aiming at a visually similar effect, the Viennese coated a copper plaquette with enamel and then added a thin layer of gilding on the area that formed the background. The overglaze painted design, of figurines or floral ornament, was then laid in. When fired, this treatment left the painted work silhouetted against the gold background.

Enamel paintings had many practical and visual advantages both for display and functional objects.

The colors were permanent and the glaze covered the object seamlessly. The style of decoration that was adopted gave pronounced contrasts so that the pictures had good carrying power. The painting gave a lavish appearance to small items such as scent flasks and snuffboxes and could be adapted to fashionable trends, while the glazed surface had the twin attractions of being pleasant to the touch and easy to keep bright and clean. The makers of these pieces benefited from a smaller investment than was required for gemstones, crystal, and gold, while the artwork could elevate the pieces into the luxury class.
Bright colors were deemed to contribute more than the painting style to the eye-catching properties of these enameled objects. Spontaneity was encouraged, and, as for Viennese porcelain painters, the enamelers were instructed not to directly trace from a print, but to draw lines freehand after the existing workshop models. This gave the necessary conformity of subjects and format, but ensured subtle variations of detail even when many similar copies were made.

Geneva had been the dominant center for the teaching of delicate enamel painting since the eighteenth century,

and artists working in Vienna followed that training directly or indirectly. Genevan methods had been perfected for portrait miniatures and other detailed images intended for ornamenting gold snuffboxes, watchcases, and jewelry. This level of ornament involved time-consuming processes and usually many firings to produce delicate pictures with subtle and controlled gradations of tones. The Vienna style of this period changed some of the Genevan principles, including that of working up the paintings from a plain white ground, which tended to give a visually cold effect. Visually warmer, more lushly colored images, with a sense of space and depth, were preferred in Vienna for scenic pictures, so the Vienna painters introduced the use of a tinted ground of light pink or very pale yellow enamel. The figure painting was then applied with well-defined outlines and bright colors.
Turquoise and Coral heart - Tibet photo by pustule

There were several technical limits on what could be obtained with painting on enamel. The only pigments that could withstand fixing with the necessary red heat were derived from minerals, chiefly metal oxides, and this determined the range of the palette. As each hue had slightly different properties, few could be mixed for good half tones, but they could be lightened with clear or white enamel, which also imparted some gloss. It was otherwise necessary to layer compatible colors in separate stages. However, once fused, it was not possible to mask a dark color with a lighter one. To use these pigments as overglazes over a prepared enamel ground, each color was powdered as fine as talc and mixed with a little oil of lavender to make a paint suitable for applying by brush or point. To fix the painted image, after drying and warming the workpiece, it was placed on a support and inserted into the enameling furnace at red heat. Generally firing at this stage required no more than one to two minutes, and the process had to be timed exactly. Excessive firing by even a few seconds could result in flaws and tended to weaken the intensity of colors. The colors that needed the most careful treatment were the brilliant red and fine pink hues that figured in many of the Vienna paintings. The key to retaining the brightest colors lay in completing the image in two, or at most three firings. However, this restricted the subtlety of outlines and the gradation of tones.

The Vienna style aimed at sophisticated images and elegant figures. This meant avoiding flesh tones with ruddy tints, which were considered too hot. However, these tones could not be too pale if they were to harmonize with the colorful draperies and backgrounds. The usual method was to choose an evenly pink tone for females and allegorical figures like putti, while a light brown or ocher was used for the men. Shading could be added with some touches of darker color, which usually required an additional firing. The resulting pictures succeeded admirably in presenting readily identifiable, attractive scenes intended to be seen effectively from a normal viewing distance. However, when examined under magnification, it often becomes apparent that individual forms were composed in a sketchy fashion, so that a picture of a pretty nymph or handsome face has been created with just a very few carefully placed lines against smooth color.

For the Vienna enamels made after about 1900, chiefly novelty objects, there was a change of painting style and subjects. These objects were usually ornamented with floral patterns and popular Watteauesque designs, showing many permutations of serenading poets and shepherdesses in eighteenth-century costume, set against a white or pale blue ground. These paintings ranged from designs with simple outlines to those with fine brushwork, and this diversity continued spasmodically during the twentieth century, when output also included some good reproductions made in the earlier manner.

The fine Vienna pieces inspired by Renaissance and rococo designs, like their forerunners, could be up to forty inches or more in height, and consist of several components requiring the skills of several specialists. The main body of a vessel could itself be composed of more than one section joined with collars and rims. Additions included pillars, decorative handles, sockets for finials, and small feet shaped like figurines or masks. The goldsmiths worked on the precious metal mounts; the casters made silver alloy parts; and enamelers added the inlaid or smooth glazes to these sections. For the painted sections and plaques, the copper forms were made by metalsmiths, and passed next to the enamel shop for coating with the necessary smooth white ground. These prepared blanks were then sent to the enamel painters who generally worked in independent ateliers, and usually specialized in either figurative pictures or patterned ornaments.

Not all colors were suitable for cast silver components, which had a comparatively low melting point. The enamels best suited for this application were clear and opaque blue in several shades, and clear greens. Clear red could be used but fused with an amber tint over silver. The enamels for inlaying and coating silver were powdered colored glasses mixed with water into a paste. Such inlays were fired at somewhat higher heat than painted work, usually for two to three minutes, at between 1472[degrees] and 1580[degrees]F (800[degrees] and 860[degrees] C). A second thin layer of enamel could be added for extra depth, but further firing was best avoided so that flaws would not develop in the castings. The fused glaze was generally thinned down with abrasives (a process known as stoning), then refired or polished to leave a smooth surface. For coating figurines or small areas of silver or copper (in the email en ronde bosse manner), opaque white enamel was employed, either as a paste or as a slurry applied by dipping. The components that were coated in this way have melded contours and were left with a slightly undulating, high gloss fire finish.

Article by ERIKA SPEEL is a historian and a writer on many aspects of enameling techniques and enamelwork. Her Dictionary of Enamelling (Ashgate, Aldershot, England, 1998) will be joined by her companion volume on painted enamels from 1500 to 1920, which is scheduled for publication late in 2007.
• Frederick Litchfield, Antiques, Genuine and Spurious: An Art Expert's Recollections and Cautions (G. Bell and Sons, London, 1921), pp. 198-199.
• COPYRIGHT Brant Publications, Inc. and Gale Group

Jean-Valentin Morel and the revival of the Lapidary's art: Isabelle Lucas describes the career of the remarkable French goldsmith who pioneered the taste for hard-stone vessels in renaissance taste.

The article marks the acquisition by the Indianapolis Museum of Art of one of Morel's masterpieces, made in 1854-55 for the duc de Luynes - by Isabelle Lucas

The Indianapolis Museum of Art has purchased a splendid bloodstone cup with enamelled gold mounts made by the French goldsmith Jean-Valentin Morel.'

Created in 1854-55 for the duc de Luynes, an eminent connoisseur who admired Morel's talents, it represents the culmination of a long-matured skill and ranks as one of Morel's lapidary masterpieces (Fig. 2). a carver of precious stones, a goldsmith and a jeweller: one by one he acquired all the skills needed to revive this branch of the luxury arts, which had been at its height in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Although he never stopped making new contributions to goldsmithing and jewellery, he gradually made work in hardstones one of the dominant features of his craft. His path towards the aesthetic and technical reacquisition of this luxury technique can be retraced from contemporary documents relating to his career and the few pieces known to us at present.

It seems likely that he formed the ambition to excel in this difficult genre very early on. Present at every stage of his eventful career, work in hard stones endowed his professional path with an originality unparalleled among his Parisian fellow craftsmen. In that, the example of his father, who initiated him into the stone-cutter's art while he was still very young, was decisive. Valentin Morel (1761-1834) was Piedmontese in origin, and had been trained at the royal rock-crystal works founded by Antoine Caire-Morand at Briangon in 1778. Described as a 'very intelligent pupil', he profited fully from the lessons of Charles Ponsoni and Joseph Fenoti, the two Milanese craftsmen who were his masters. (2) Perhaps it was his ambition to have a career commensurate with his talent that led him to settle in Paris, where he distinguished himself over several decades by his cutting of rock crystal, his speciality. However, it was not a propitious time for the lapidary's art. The task of bringing objets d'art made of jasper, agate, lapis lazuli and rock crystal back into favour would fall to Jean-Valentin, helped by the 'special knowledge that was very useful to him subsequently' passed on to him by his father) Although it is not possible to detect in his work the distant heritage of the Milanese tradition that might link Morel to one of the most active and prestigious centres of production of the renaissance, his background demonstrates a strong and precocious awakening of awareness of the lapidary's art.


After a sound apprenticeship as a goldsmith and jeweller served with Adrien Vachette (1753-1839), a master who had been renowned since the reign of Louis XVI, and an early career full of challenges met with ingenuity, Jean-Valentin's interest in the carving of precious stones became more pronounced from 1828, when he settled in Chateau-Thierry. As he later related, he intended to restore the noble credentials of the lapidary's art: 'I resolutely set about restoring to the profession of lapidary the importance it had acquired in the hands of the old masters; the items it then produced, collected at great expense by our museums, attested to its excellence, which reached its peak towards the end of the sixteenth century. But since that period the art had gradually degenerated to the point of being only a minor craft, producing items of a naive simplicity'. (4) Outside the town he founded a workshop staffed by young peasants whom he trained himself. (5) Always eager to experiment, he also perfected pietra dura mosaic. At the end of this interlude in the provinces, by 1833 his skills extended to not only 'gold snuffboxes, mounts for antique pieces and valuable paintings', but also the execution of 'inlays, mosaics on cups, vases and objets d'art made of jasper, lapis lazuli, agate, etc., as well as mounts for them made of gold and silver'. (6)

In 1834 Jean-Baptiste Fossin (1786-1848) and his son Jules (1808-69) appointed Morel to run the workshop producing objets d'art for their internationally renowned jewellery business. This enabled him to improve his skill still further, thanks to the many commissions they received. Under the influence of what is conventionally called the Romantic movement, a new interest in history and the arts of the past took shape. A new fascination for old objects was evident in the Fossins' cultivated clientele, who asked designers for modern works inspired by them. Morel was commissioned to repair, transform or embellish several early items testifying to the techniques and styles of the past. Once again he took advantage of his great manual dexterity and inventiveness to master forgotten processes such as repousse work on gold, the rediscovery of which proved indispensable to the creation of works that matched the spirit of the time.

He applied this technique for the first time to the mount for a large hard-stone cup that, from his description of it, can probably be identified with a cup made of agate that may be the first hard-stone vase made by him in the renaissance taste (Fig. 1). (7) Its massiveness is surprising in comparison with other known pieces, as is its mount, decorated with broad, curling strapwork, commonly used by nineteenth-century designers and typical of the ornamental vocabulary of the renaissance. Although the tortoises on the foot, perhaps derived from a casket in the Louvre, are so far as is known unique in his work, the winged sirens on the handles will go through noteworthy transformations in his later works. (8) On the other hand, two of Morel's favourite ornamental motifs are already present: the friezes of delicately enamelled foliage and the grotesque masks. The putto about to crush a dragon with a stone (which is missing) is a motif he would reuse in goldsmithing.

Perhaps bought from Fossin by baron Anthony de Rothschild in 1836, this lidded vase appears to be among the first works Morel made in a manner destined to develop in a major way. The designer of the model is not known, nor is the enameller whose skill contributes to the success of the whole piece. The same questions arise with regard to the two cups made for the duc de Cambaceres, delivered by Fossin in 1843. The most spectacular consisted of a 'large round cup in oriental onyx, mount and ornaments in fine chased, enamelled gold. The foot formed by a group of three naked chained women (Captives of Amor) in sculpted silver, the chains, flowers and drapes in gold damascening. Lid in silver-gilt covered with a network of arabesque ornaments in fine gold enamelled in various colours and topped by a group of two figures (Venus and Amor) in sculpted silver, accessories embellished with gold damascening'. (9)

This shows that within a few years Morel had succeeded in mastering numerous technical processes and had tested his skill on very elaborate models. The visual splendour of the object depended on the variety of colour arising from the diversity of the materials used in combination. However, the contrasting sheen of the gold and silver, characteristic of goldsmithing in the 1840s, would give way to the exclusive use of gold in the years following the July monarchy. as for damascening, it was a splendid embodient of the inventor's patent lodged by Morel in 1842.

Up to this point, his work had been restricted to the eyes of a few wealthy art-lovers, but it was brought to the admiring attention of a wider public in 1844, when a national exhibition of industrial products was held. In partnership with Henri Duponchel (1794-1868) under the business name Morel et Cie, Morel could henceforth call on the assistance of ornamental designers and talented sculptors to prepare the models for his works, and on a large number of qualified craftsmen to execute them. Dominated by the neo-renaissance style favoured by both designers and the public, the 1844 exhibition gave hard stones pride of place. Several goldsmiths rivalled Morel in this field, such as F.-D. Froment-Meurice, with his famous 'coupe des Vendanges' (wine harvest cup) and F.-J. Rudolphi, a great lover of lapis lazuli.

Morel deployed the full extent of his skill with some objects in pietredure mosaic and a series of cups in sixteenth-century style. One very much admired piece made of rock crystal prefigured one of the outstanding works made later in London in its birds, described as 'peacocks completely dripping with gold, azure and dazzling reflections' perched symmetrically on the handles, formed from arabesques made of gold. (11) Two marine deities made of silver, completely in repousse shaped by a hammer, were back to back on either side of the foot. The gold medal that rewarded his works must have encouraged Morel to pursue his aim of regenerating the luxury crafts. Major works would be produced in London, where his break with Duponchel and the 1848 revolution led him to found a new Morel et Cie, with the backing of Jules Fossin and a rich French artlover, Edmond Joly de Bammeville. (12)
Handicapped by national suspicion of French goldsmithing which benefited his English competitors, he was encouraged to develop his work with hard stones by commissions from several art-lovers. The diversity of forms and ornamentation on the pieces on show at the Great Exhibition in 1851, the majority of which are known only through engravings published on the occasion of the exhibition, was brilliant testimony to the fertile inventiveness of their designers, stimulated by the rich decorative repertory of the French crown jewels, held at the Louvre, which were the main source of inspiration. Nonetheless, although some motifs were copied from ancient pieces, most were original designs, freely inspired by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century examples. For example, the dragon serving as a handle to a lapis lazuli cup was borrowed from a sardonyx cup in the Louvre, embellished in about 1630 by a mount attributed to the Parisian goldsmith Pierre Delabarre .(13) But the foot supporting the vessel is a composition by the ornamental designer Constant Sevin, who entwined two tritons resting on a rock.

The decoration of an agate cup, designed by the graphic artist Charles Niviller for the wife of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia, was at once compared with certain ancient mounts in the Louvre. Its handles with scrolls of foliage are reminiscent of those on two agate cups, which they amplified and embellished with birds of paradise, a new version of those decorating the cup exhibited in 1844. (14) The techniques of renaissance goldsmiths were likewise reproduced with care, as is demonstrated by the motifs in chased gold in bas-relief and enamel applied to a silver-gilt base that can be seen on a rock crystal vase which has come down to us in damaged form . This piece was made for the antiquary and factory-owner John Webb, who had a very high opinion of Motel's work. The commission for an exact replica of the mount of a piece in the museum, intended to embellish an antique ewer and bowl of rock crystal that he owned , proved his confidence in Morel's talents and the extent to which the collection at the Louvre constituted an incontrovertible point of reference. (15)

An alliance of old techniques with a conception of a renewed version of the works of the past, the agate cup designed by the sculptor Albert Carrier appealed to the selection committee for the future collections of the Museum of Ornamental Art, which arranged for it to be bought. The committee praised the elegance of the composition and the virtuosity of the execution, outstanding for the perfection of the enamelling and the repousse work in the round that ennobled and animated the figures composing the mount. Emphasising the demands posed in making it, Morel made it clear that all stages of the execution were done by hand and had entailed months of effort.

As in Paris, he had enlisted the ornamental designers Sevin and Niviller, the sculptors Klagmann, Cain, Jacquemart and Carrier, and skilled technicians such as the chasers Attarge, Dalbergue, Buhot and Masson, the lapidary Leclere (his pupil) and the enameller Lefournier, who was a restorer of enamels painted on gold from the renaissance period. Some had followed him to England, others worked for him from Paris. His correspondence reveals the demand for perfection to which he subjected every detail of the execution and the unremitting attention with which he directed all the operations involved in a project, from its conception to its completion. The high award he received from the jury made special mention of his 'rich and handsome series of chalices and cups of various kinds in precious materials ornamented with enamels', unequalled by his competitors.

That success determined the closing stages of his career, which was devoted almost exclusively to work in hard stones. His firmly established reputation led to commissions from several European connoisseurs. From the workshop in Sevres that he set up at the end of 1852 a final series of outstanding pieces emerged, some of which contributed to the brilliant success he achieved at the Exposition universelle in Paris in 1855. The most famous is the monumental bloodstone cup created for the English banker Henry Thomas Hope , Morel's most ambitious work in hard stone in terms of both its size and its elaborate iconographic programme. The challenge it represented was accepted with zest.

The cutting of the cup and its foot required three years' work and the invention of numerous processes. The large cameo featuring a mask of Medusa was also hailed as a remarkable technical achievement. Designed by Constant Sevin, the piece is embellished by a spectacular mount in enamelled gold depicting the story of Perseus and Andromeda, often illustrated by the artists of the renaissance, who probably inspired the mannerist nature of the figures. But some elements in the decoration also echoed the hard-stone vases in the Louvre: the dragon is reminiscent of the one already mentioned and the men's masks applied to the base recall the satyr's mask on the large boat-shaped vessel in lapis lazuli. An exceptional piece, the Hope cup alone justified the duc de Luynes's statement that 'never will any professional difficulty bring M. Morel to a halt, nor will he encounter one without resolving it with all the success that could be wished for'.

An erudite man with many interests, a collector of coins and antique art, Honore d'Albert, duc de Luynes (1802-67) was a generous patron of French goldsmiths. (19) His scientific works on metals and his high artistic demands were in tune with Morel's preoccupations. The duke not only praised his skill and perseverance but also bought a number of pieces from him. After acquiring the lapis lazuli cup exhibited in London in 1851, he commissioned two other pieces in 1854 that Morel undertook to show at the Exposition universelle of 1855. The two works, equal in their sophistication of design and execution, have come down to us in a perfect state of preservation. The superb quality of the chasing and enamelling in particular illustrates the laudatory remarks made by Horace de Viel-Castel regarding Morel: 'he brings to his execution every delicacy of work, every refinement of finish, and, like his sixteenth-century masters he knows how to combine these with originality full of delight in invention'. (20)

One of the two items commissioned by the duc de Luynes in 1854 is the bloodstone cup in the shape of a chalice purchased by the Indianapolis Museum of Art (Fig. 2). Balanced in its strict symmetry, with mounts in chased and enamelled gold, embellished by precious stones and two cameos from the duke's collection, the cup is dominated by the winged sirens that form the handles (Fig. 9), revealing the approach of the nineteenth-century artist drawing on the limitless possibilities for decorative combinations afforded by the jewels in the Louvre. (21) His choice of female winged figures to flank the vase--a motif for which the Louvre's collection provides several models--is given an unparalleled richness by the adaptation of a very sophisticated example decorating the handle of a sixteenth-century Milanese vase (Fig. 10). (22) Although developed considerably, the motif has been scrupulously respected down to the most minute details. It matches the shape of the piece, endowing it with the delicacy and elegance of the exceptional objects that inspired it. Another remarkable element of the decoration is related to the heavy garlands of fruit used in the renaissance: the opulent garland of naturalistic flowers held by grotesque masks, a motif dear to Morel, who used it on many pieces.

A letter from Morel to the duc de Luynes of 24 June 1854 reveals that he had to observe carefully all the directions supplied by the drawing, but does not give the name of the model's designer. It may have been the ornamental designer L.A.M. Cavelier, said to have designed several objects made for the duke by Morel. (23) The second piece made in 1854-55 is the result of a completely different approach, since it is a virtually exact copy of a lidded vase then attributed to Benvenuto Cellini, in the Uffizi. (24) This vase, made of rock crystal engraved with gadroons, is topped with a lid with a radiating decoration of oval medallions and cherubs' heads organised round the knob, formed from a bouquet of rioters in the same vein as the garland on the other cup, but supported by four children's beads (Fig. 12). Very much admired at the Exposition universelle, the lapis-lazuli cup and the two cups commissioned in 1854 were installed by the duke in the Galerie de l'Age d'or, decorated by Ingres, at his chateau of Dampierre, where he kept his collections.

Sought out by the enlightened art lovers of his day to interpret the creations of the past in works worthy of the princely collections of the renaissance, to embellish old vases with mounts that combined harmoniously with them, or even to make identical reproductions of the most sophisticated pieces, Morel had made himself the champion of the revival of the luxury obiets d'art made by his sixteenth and seventeenth-century predecessors. The constant honing of his skill, due to his attentive study of old examples and unremitting experimentation, attested to the deepening of his fondness for this speciality, which demanded the best from the lapidary, the goldsmith and the enameller. The happy conjunction of the legacy of his father, which set him apart from his fellow goldsmiths, and of his fascination for renaissance art, which had a powerful influence on goldsmithmg from the 1830s onwards, enabled him to embark on an original path in which he expressed that 'passion for perfection which dominates his nature'. (25) His works placed him in the vanguard of the taste for hard stones that developed in the following years. The work of the lapidary triumphed at the Exposition universelle of 1867, as the goldsmiths themselves recognised. Through his copies and interpretations of the jewels at the Louvre, the goldsmith Charles Duron can be regarded as Motel's stylistic successor.

I would like to offer my very special thanks to M. Daniel Alcouffe, who a few years ago gave me the opportunity to study the life and work of Jean-valentin Morel and so familiarise myself with the collection of jewels at the Musee du Louvre, which he knows so well. I would also like to thank Mme Beatrice de Plintval, Mrs. Dianan Scarisbrick, and Mr. Barry Shifman for their help with illustrations for this article.

(1) Purchased on the London art market after being sold at Sotheby's Paris, on 15 December, 2003 lot 154.
(2) Archives nationales, Paris, F12 2274. Establishment of the rock crystal works at Briancon: inventory of 23 December 1780.

(3) H. Vever, La Bijouterie francaise au xIXe siecle, 1800-1900, paris, 1906-1908, vol. I, p. 252.

(4) Archives nationales, Paris, F12 5217. Undated Letter from Morel.

(5) Ibid.: 'I taught them to saw, to cut the precious stones, to make them follow all the contours of a drawing, to inlay them, to transform them into cups, vases.'

(6) J.-A. Azur, Almanach de la fabrique de Paris. Suite a I'almanach des fabricans travalllant en matieres d'or, al'argent et autres meteux., Paris, 1834.

(7) Sold at Sotheby's, New York, 14 June 1999, lot 29.

(8) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d' Objets d'arL no. MR 166. See D. Alcouffe, Les gemmes de la Couronne, Paris, 2001, pp. 162 63.

(9) Chaumet Archives, Paris, invoice book D, foIs. 96 and 178.

(10) Institut national de la propriete industrielle, Paris. A ten-year patent for the invention and improvement of a 'process of damascening or inlay on all kinds of metals' was granted to Morel and his partner Duponchel on 7 October 1842.

(11) Le Petit Courrier des Dames ou Nouveau Journal des modes, des theatres de la Iitterature et des arts, Paris, 25 May 1844, vol. XLV, pp. 230-31.

(12) On the firm of Morel et Cie in London, see D. Scarisbrick, Chaumet, joailher depuls 1780, Paris, 1995, and eadem, 'Jean-Valentin Morel, jeweller: Chaumet's fortune in London', APOLLO, vol. CXLIII, no. 407 (January 1996), pp. 26-30.

(13) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d'Objets d'art, no. MR 120. See Alcouffe, op. cir., no. 185, pp. 382-85.

(14) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d'Objets d'art, no. MR 223 and MR 238: the two agate cups are Parisian pieces dating from the mid 17th century. See Alcouffe, op. cit. nos. 197 and 198, pp. 413 15.

(15) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d'Obiets d'art, no. MR 231. This ewer in agate and enamelled gold is also a Parisian piece dating from the mid-17th century. See Alcouffe, op. cit., no, 194, pp. 409-10.

(16) Department of Practical Art: A Catalogue of the Articles of Ornamental Art, selected from the Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 and pumhased by the Government, London, 1852, pp. 48 49. The cup was exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum until World War II. It has since disappeared from its collections. The model enjoyed some success since two other copies, more or less complete but using a different stone, are known.

(17) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d'ObJets d'art, no. MR 285. See AJcouffe, op. cit., no. 109, pp. 253 55.

(18) Duc de Luynes, Exposition universelle de 1851, Travaux de la cemmlssion franqaise sur l'industrie des nations publies par ordre de l'empereur: XXXIII jury. Industrie des metaux precieux par M. le duc de Luynes, Paris, 1854, p. 70.

(19) On the character of the duc de Luynes, see I. Aghion and M. Avisseau-Broustet, 'Le duc de Luynes, archeologue, histerien, homme de sciences et collectinneur', in Revue de la Bibliotheque nationale de France, no. 3, 1994, pp. 12-19.
(20) Horace, comte deViel Castel, 'Conversation', in Le ConstltutJonnel, 19 March 1854, p. 1.

(21) D. Scarisbrickidentified these cameos as an onyx cameo of Venus Victrix (probably ancient) and an onyx cameo of Ajax seizing Cassandra in the sanctuary of Pallas Athene after the capture of Troy (probably not ancient).

(22) Musee du Louvre, Paris, Department d'Objets d'arL no. MR 262. See AIcouffe, op. cit., no. 210, pp. 432-33.

(23) Exposition universelle de 1855. Rapports du jury mixte international publies sous la direction de S.A.L le prince Napoleon, Paris, 1856, vol. ii, p. 561.

(24) Stolen and stripped of its mount in 1860, the piece can no longer be compared to the item made by Morel except through the painstaking drawings of the German goldsmith Georg Carl Backes (Zeichenakademie, Hanau). See B. Marquardt, 'Bisher unbekannte Zeichnuagen angeblich nach Benvenuto Cellini' in Weltkunst, January 1989, pp. 16 20; A.M. Massinelli, 'Una pisside per la cassetta di Valerio Belli?' in Antologla di Belle Arti 1991-92, pp. 115 16.

(25) L. de Laborde, De I'unlon de I'art et de l'industrie, Pans, 1856, vol. i, p. 209.

Isabelle Lucas is an art historian specialising in 19th-century goldsmith's work and jewellery. She is currently Librarian at the Ministry of Culture, Paris.

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