Victorian 15ct Gold Shell Cameo of a Classical Lady Carved by Pio Siotto

A top quality cameo that was carved by Pio Siotto who was an Italian artist active as a cameo and gem engraver from the 1830s onwards.
He initially studied architecture, and modelling in clay at the Academy of St.Luke in Rome. He then went on to engrave portraits and scenes, in profile and perspective, large and small, on medallions, pins, rings, bracelets.

He was commissioned to engrave a series of medallions representing the Kings of Poland. This collection in shell cameos, was begun in 1860, and completed in 1870. He completed a medallion depicting the Lacoon of the Vatican Palace. he has also made copies of sculpture of Thorvaldsen, Gibson, Canova, and Fedi. He engraved Fedi’s Rape of Polyxena, displayed under the Loggia dei Lanzi, in a cameo. He made a tryptich of sardonyx cameos to celebrate the family of the Queen Margherita of Savoy. Siotto won awards at the Expositions of Rome, Naples, Vienna, Philadelphia, and Melbourne. At Melbourne, he exhibited in a glass exhibition case, the process of cameo engraving from the natural shell to completed carving.

This cameo is an excellent example of his work. It is a carving of a classical lady and the surround is 15ct gold with fine Etruscan Revival gold wirework. It was made circa 1860-1880. It has an added safety chain.