1800's Antique Grand Tour Cameo retailer Plaster

Made in Europe in the late 1700's to early 1800's. These were made by museums and sold to visitors to show off the museums cameo collection. This cameo is numbered 4 and came from a book containing 30 different images of Hercules. 34x40mm


The Grand Tour
Beginning around 1650, young aristocrats embarked upon a rite of passage known as The Grand Tour, to enrich their education in art, architecture, history, languages, and culture. With virtually unlimited funds, they traveled throughout the European continent, commissioning paintings, purchasing antiques, and taking lessons in riding, fencing, music, history, culture, the classics and languages.
A tour might include London, Paris, Switzerland, and particularly Italy – Turin, Florence, Pisa, Padua, Bologna and Venice. Ample time was spent in Rome to study the classics, then on to Pompeii, Vesuvius, and Naples. Longer sojourns might include Vienna, Dresden, Munich, Flanders, St. Petersburg, Madrid, etc. By 1840, advancements in rail transportation opened touring to the upper class, even including young women, as we saw in E. M. Forster's novel A Room with a View.
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Easily transportable keepsakes included intaglios carved from precious stones. Originally used to impress wax seals on letters and documents, the finished impression resembled a cameo. When intaglios retailer became popular with tourists, artisans quickly perfected a method to produce inexpensive copies made from glass paste.

By 1820, merchants were offering plaster replicas of these cameos in all sizes. The plasters portrayed Greek and Roman deities, architectural details, mythological figures and religious iconography. They could be purchased in book format as well.