Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed nowBy subscribing, you are agreeing to the privacy policy. Unsubscribe anytime.
Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Coins & Banknotes / Antique Lava Cameo of the Goddess Hebe Set in Silver, Around 1860 and Later
We see the youthful goddess Hebe in peaceful coexistence with Zeus, the father of the gods, who appears in the form of an eagle. The cameo-cutter has captured Hebe in her most important task in the heaven of the gods in an artistic cut: She is cupbearer to the Olympian gods and responsible for the preparation of food. Here she serves her father Zeus a bowl of the gods' ambrosia and a carafe of nectar. Hebe is dressed in a peblos and Zeus as a mighty eagle with a bundle of fire in his fangs approaches in flight to fortify himself. In Homer, nectar and ambrosia appear regularly in the Odyssey as the immortalizing food of the gods. The present brooch dates from around 1860, a time when cameo jewellery and the study of the legends of antiquity were particularly popular. The oval piece presents itself in a simple setting of silver, which was forged to the old cameo in recent years. The material of the sculpted relief is a soft limestone from the foot of Mount Vesuvius, which was cleverly described in sales terms as "lava" as early as the 19th century and which is ideal for carving sculpted cameos. Jewellery with cameos of this kind was a popular souvenir of a trip to the south of Italy in the 19th century. The ochre limestone used here was considered by travellers to be the "lava" of Vesuvius, recalling the sinking of Pompeii in 79 AD when the city sank under the ashes of this volcano. The ruined cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which sank and were miraculously rediscovered, were a fixed item on the itinerary of every Italian trip in the 19th century and offered a very direct impression of everyday life in antiquity. Jewellery made from the material of these places could thus become a beautiful, perhaps also somewhat macabre souvenir. A rare piece of jewellery and a reminiscence of classical antiquity in one!
Estimate:£679.47
To the auctionView all items fromHofer AntikschmuckorCoins & Banknotes
Estimate:
£679.47
Danish East Anglia (c. 885-915), 'St Edmund Memorial Coinage', Penny
10/08/2026
£500
Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed now
NGC PF60 | Victoria (1837-1901), The Extremely Elusive 'No B.P.' 'Golden
10/08/2026
£10,000
NGC UNC | George III (1760-1820), New Coinage, Crown, 1820 over 19 LX
10/08/2026
£240
