POST MEDIEVAL INTAGLIO

Unknown artist

An incomplete late post-medieval/early modern swivel mount within which is set a flat purple glass intaglio. Length: 24.8mm; width: 21.0mm; thickness: 3.9mm; mass: 4.8g. The mount is ?gilded copper-alloy. It is oval in plan, with a median groove running around the edge and a small circular hole at the top and bottom, probably to permit the object to swivel within a frame. The front of the intaglio depicts a woman, draped, standing right, with an altar/low pedestal to the right, beyond which there is a statue on a column. The reverse is undecorated. The intaglio is broken horizontally above the centre, and vertically on the upper half. There is significant loss of the original surface from the top-right quarter of the front and from portions of the reverse. The intaglio has a pitted surface on the front and towards the sides on the reverse. The broken surfaces are not pitted, suggesting that these are recent. The intaglio has a bevelled edge.The intaglio is not ancient; it is likely to be one of the common neo-classical types dated to c.1800 and similar reflective/mourning women are seen in contemporary church sculpture (Dr Martin Henig, pers. comm.). There is an example of a glass intaglio within a similar mount recorded on the PAS database as DENO-38F824. I am grateful to Dr Martin Henig for his assistance with this record.