C927A119: Miniature ivory carving: Garlanding the Herm

This delicately carved ivory relief is a tour de force of virtuoso ivory carving on a minute scale. The technique, known as filigree or micro-carving, was popular in the late eighteenth century and pieces were often incorporated into jewellery or snuff boxes.

The relief was almost certainly made by the German ivory carvers G. Stephany and J. Dresch who specialised in miniature carvings of breathtaking intricacy. Contemporary advertisements and trade labels show that the pair were business partners with the silhouette painter Charles Rosenberg in Bath between 1792 and 1797. They subsequently moved to their own premises in Bath but by 1800 appear to have been permanently based in London. They exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1792 and 1803. Stephany is thought to have come from Augsburg, a city renowned for its ivory carving. Stephany and Dresch were described as ‘the most eminent sculptors in ivory in Europe . . . who will execute any design for Rings, Bracelets, Lockets, or for Cabinet pieces’. Their work was ‘so fine that a glass is necessary to discover its beauties’. They soon attracted royal attention and by 1793 they were describing themselves as sculptors ‘in ivory to Her Majesty’ and subsequently ‘Sculptors in Miniature on Ivory to their Majesties’. As well as portraits, much of their work consisted of miniature scenes, characteristically set on blue ‘Bristol’ glass backgrounds. In March 1798 Mrs Philip Lybbe Powys described Stephany and Dresch’s work as ‘most exceedingly curious: Windsor Castle, Greenwich Hospital, Eddystone Lighthouse &c., most ingeniously carved from solid pieces of ivory. Likenesses of their Majesties astonishing well done’.