Some time ago I bought out the drawers of an old jeweler's workbench, and there were lots of gorgeous century-old hand carved Italian cameos and micro mosaics, and these 8 carved lava pieces, all little works of art, and all passed down through generations of goldsmith jewelers. I love that, in France, many generations of a family stay in the family business, apprentice and eventually take it over, passing one generation to the next. This sale marked the closing, end of the line, and there were incredible treasures to be had. I only bought a few lots, and this is one. I've had them for a couple decades, myself. I'm nostalgic about such things. But it's time to part with my own collections and I will offer these 8 together as they came to me. Someone in Italy should buy them, have their goldsmith make up the mounts and offer them for the monstrously high prices they charge there for such Grand Tour souvenirs. It's interesting, travelers would buy these uncounted, take them to French or English goldsmiths to create the mounts after they got back home. Each of these larger ones would be quite pricey. Again, offering the lot together, and will not sell one separately. Please don't ask.
Very good to excellent condition, carved mid-1800s, they have never been made up into jewelry, nor mounted on boxes or other souvenirs. I've had them displayed in an open jewelry box, quite plain, in which they survived in that French jewelry maker/goldsmith shop. There is a little nip to the nose of the putti/baby. Slight edge nips on the one lava profile, visible in images, and would disappear within a mount. The pinkish one is carve angel coral.
