Framed Intaglios

An intaglio is a figure or design carved into stone or a hard material. "Intaglios, cameos, and medals were popular among collectors in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Skilled engravers copied such artefacts from the classical world, reproductions were made in paste and glass, and collectors bought them not only for display, but to study classical Greece and Rome. Additionally new medals and intaglios were as popular with collectors, who bought them to commemorate, and to show an affinity with the contemporary events and personalities depicted in them: battles, parliamentary acts, political campaigns, and philosophers, statesmen, soldiers, sailors, poets, writers."(from the UCL Bentham Project)

Sources :Jon Freeman's Tiberian Design, Things That Inspire, CSM Art & Frame, Ancient Resource, Edgar L. Owen, Brownwigg, Christie's, St. Martin's Gallery