Art Nouveau Limoges Porcelain Brooch After Mucha with Gold Ormolu Asp Frame

Description

We thought this was Lillie Langtry as Cleopatra in an Art Nouveau Limoges Painted Porcelain Brooch with Gold Ormolu Snake frame. We were wrong! This is a copy after Alphonse Mucha's Byzantine Heads (just the brunette) with some additional flourishes by the artist. 

Look closely and you'll see that some gold ormolu still can be seen against the sky blue enamel background.

Lillie Langtry, actress, socialite and arguably the first mass media supermodel for advertising Pears Soap in the 1800s, had the most recognizable profile of any woman in the world outside of Queen Victoria. One of her most famous roles circa 1890-1903, was Cleopatra –And if the artist was reminded of her while painting this Limoges brooch, we get it. We saw it too!* The brooch is finished with an asp circling the frame in ormolu gold-finish (an amalgam of ground gold and mercury) over brass.

Ormulu is a technique where gold and mercury are applied to a surface and fired so that the mercury burns off. The process sounds as dangerous as that golden asp!

*Yes, we are totally aware that Byzantium and Cleopatra's Egypt existed about 1,000 years apart. We're not questioning whatever artistic license, if any, the artist may be employing here.

THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND MUSEUM-GRADE ITEM IS SOLD AS IS, NON-RETURNABLE WITH NO WARRANTY, ALL WEIGHTS & GRADES HAVE BEEN ESTIMATED AND ARE APPROXIMATES.