YELLOW GOLD, OLD MINE CUT DIAMOND AND CARVED CITRINE CAMEO PORTRAIT BROOCH,Carving attributed to renowned glyptic artist Ottavio Negri, of Rome and New York, using Davida Johnson Clark, Augustus Saint-Gaudens's model and mistress as the model, and reputedly crafted in the studio of Augustus-Saint Gaudens. Oval citrine carved in high relief with bust of Pre-Raphaelite type maiden, reversing to a "double shadow/dual personality" image, within gold frame set with 24 matched old mine cut diamonds alternating with textured gold spherules on carved ground. Reverse of citrine etched with a name, possibly reading to be that of Caroline (Lina) Schermerhorn Astor, and the address of "599 B[road]way", a property owned by the Astor family in the 1890s - 2 in. x 1 1/2 in. Estimate $1,500-2,500
PROVENANCE: By family descent to present owner; originally a gift from Augustus Saint-Gaudens to American landscape painter William Louis Sonntag, Sr., 1896, who gave it to Beatrice Sonntag Miles (later Mrs. Peter Sanford Ross Headley), New York, as a birth present. Mrs. Headley later gave the piece to her younger son, John Headley, who gave it to his wife, the present owner. The owner's ancestral family, Saint-Gaudens, Octavio Negri, and the Astor family were all closely associated with one another and with the arts community in New York in the late 19th-early 20th century. It is thought that Saint-Gaudens received the cameo from the Astors as a gift for his work, and fashioned it into a piece of jewelry in this studio. The piece merits further research.
NOTE: the cameo brooch descended in the same family as the informal double portrait by Willem de Kooning, presented as lot #618, in this auction.
