Rare 18K (750) gold ring set with a rectangular cut emerald, intaglio engraved representing Venus emerging from the ...

Rare 18K (750) gold ring set with a rectangular cut emerald, intaglio engraved representing Venus emerging from the bath, in a silver setting set with rose-cut diamonds. Small chips.
Circa 1810.
Weight of the emerald : 5.50 carats approximately.
TDD : 54.
Length of the ring : 2 cm.
Gross weight: 6.28 g.
It is accompanied by a certificate LFG n° 207016 of 13/05/2013 attesting origin Colombia with moderate presence of oil.
40 000/60 000
Provenance :
- Collection Edme Antoine DURAND (Auxerre, 1768-Florence, 1835), great French collector. Probably acquired directly from the artist.
- Bequeathed in 1836 to his friend E. J. BUQUET.
- Bequeathed in 1847 to the baroness ATTALIN, born Thérèse Françoise Lelandais (1804-1886).
- Private collection, France.
History:
Luigi PICHLER (Rome, January 31, 1773 - Rome, March 13, 1854) was a German-Italian artist of engraved precious and semi-precious stones. Son of Anton Pichler and half-brother and pupil of Giovanni Pichler, both gem cutters, Luigi took over the family workshop in 1791.
Apprentice to his very famous 39 year old brother and painter Domenico de Angelis, he moved for a time to Vienna, where in 1818 he was appointed professor of gem engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts. He worked for Franz I of Habsburg and created replicas of some of Austria's most famous gems for the famous "Vienna Cabinet", a gift for Pope Pius VII. He so impressed the French court jeweler François-Régnault Nitot that the latter tried to persuade him to move to Paris. His works are almost exclusively in intaglio, and are usually signed in Greek from right to left.
He created many copies of his brother's and father's work.
Pichler received many honors later in life, including a diploma from the Academy of St. Luke and membership in the Academy of Venice, as well as, in 1839, the Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great and, in 1842, of the Order of St. Sylvester. In 1850 he returned to
Rome, where he died in 1854. As far as we know, there is no other intaglio emerald in the artist's known works. This is undoubtedly one of Luigi Pichler's masterpieces, so difficult is it to engrave on emerald.
Edme DURAND The discovery of Italy in 1799 inspired Edme Antoine Durand, a wealthy merchant, with a passion for collecting. Traveling throughout Europe, he used his flair and proven business sense to assemble collections that reconcile eclecticism and specialization, quantity and quality.
A picture library, a drawing room, a collection of prints, antique and modern gems, a medallion cabinet and a cabinet of arms were added to the two famous collections of antiques and objets d'art with which Chevalier Durand is commonly associated. One was sold in its entirety in 1825 to form the core of the Charles X Museum, the other was dispersed at public auction in 1836 following the death of its owner.
Thanks to the work of Mrs. Detrez (see below), we know that Durand entrusted "remarkable rough stones to the famous ultramontane gem cutters Filippo Rega, Giovanni Antonio Santarelli, Benedetto
Pistrucci, Jean and Louis Pichler". It is likely that he ordered our emerald intaglio directly from the artist, around 1810, most likely by delivering the emerald to Pichler. Chaudé indicates in his notice of 1836 (see below): "he acquired at great expense agates, sardoins, onyxes of a rare beauty, and delivered them with confidence to the most renowned artists of our days, Louis Pickler (sic), Santarelli, Massimi, Capperoni, Rega, Pistrucci, whose names shine next to those already famous in the last century and in Antiquity."
This one did not appear in the sales of 1836 but appears in the bequest to his friend E. J. Buquet, as if to signify its great preciousness, described as "a ring of an engraved emerald representing Venus coming out of the bath with an entourage of small roses" (Delivery of the bequests, AN, ET/ET/XXVI/1069).
The latter will bequeath it in his turn in 1847, mounted this time in pin, to the baroness Attalin, described "pin which is an emerald stone engraved by Pickler (sic) representing Venus going out of the bath, the aforementioned stone surrounded by small brilliants" (Testament of E. J. Buquet, AN, ET/XXVI/1131), indicating that the present ring is not necessarily the original one, contrary to the part in silver set with diamonds which was born with it well
Literature :
- Louise Detrez, Edme Antoine Durand (1768-1835) : a builder of collections. Les Cahiers de l'École du Louvre, April 2014, n° 4, pp.
(cited).
- Jean de Witte, Description des antiquités et objets d'art qui composent le