Jewellery, Watches and Objects of Vertu

An early 19th century large shell cameo brooch/hair piece, the arched rectangular shell cameo carved to depict Phoebus Apollo taking to the sky in his chariot, surrounded by the muses and preceded by Lucifer and Aurora, collet set in yellow gold, in semi fitted gilt tooled case, interior silk signed ‘G. Whitefield, Southsea’, brooch length 85mm. £2000-3000

The cameo is modelled after L’Aurora, by Guido Reni (1575-1642). This fresco, commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in 1614, adorns the ceiling of the Casino (garden house) of the Palazzo Pallavicini-Rospigliosi, in Rome. It depicts Apollo as Phoebus, the personification of the sun, taking to his chariot to ride across the sky. He is surrounded by his usual companions, the muses, and preceded by Aurora, the goddess of the dawn and the torch-bearing cherub, Lucifer, genus of light.