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Prosper d'Épinay de Briort Medallion Locket and Chain
$2,450
Created in the late 19th to early 20th century, this medallion locket is composed of 18K gold, with a later 18K gold chain. The round medallion depicts a young woman in profile with upswept hair adorned with flowers, in an organza gown with floral corsage, and slides open to an interior with mirror and glass compartment for an image, all suspended from a later double trace link chain. A diminutive work by an artist skilled at translating sculpture into low relief, this charming locket has both a sentimental and artistic purpose at once.
- Product Details
- Curator's Notes
Item #: N-20866
Artist: Comte Charles Adrien Prosper d'Epinay de Briort
Country: France
Circa: 1900
Dimensions: Locket: 1" diameter; Chain: 18" length
Materials: 18K Gold
Signed: Locket with French assay marks, makers mark
Propser d'Épinay (1836-1914) pursued an unusual career in the history French art, working in many media including as a sculptor in marble, bronze and terracotta and a painter in oil and pastel - while at the same time enjoying decades-long success as a caricaturist in the English press. Born in Mauritius to parents in the colonial service, he was educated in Paris and Rome in the art of classical sculpture. At the same time, he cultivated friends among the English aristocracy, and exhibited a flair for producing wicked caricatures of contemporary celebrities for English periodicals, like Vanity Fair, under the pseudonym "Nemo." Among the French nobility, he counted among his patrons the Comte de Chambord, and was sometimes referred to as "sculpteur de souveraines" or sculptor of sovereigns.