From AUCTION CENTRAL NEWS — DETROIT, MI — DuMouchelles’ July 19 sale included a collection of Grand Tour plaster intaglios and cameos by Paoletti of Rome. The firm, based on the Piazza di Spagna in Rome until 1847, specialized in the creation of these miniature impressions of ancient cameos, coins, medals, and sculptures — known in Italian as impronte — housed in boxes fashioned as books with marbled covers and gilt-tooled leather bindings. They were designed to be portable museums of the history of classical and Renaissance art, reminding the owner of the famous works they had seen while touring Italy.
Bartolomeo Paoletti (1757-1834) was succeeded in business by his son, Pietro Paoletti (1801-1847). An advertisement placed in Count Hawks Le Grice’s 1841 guide … Read More on Auction Central News
