Citrine cameo brooch, Wilhelm Schmidt, late 19th/early 20th century

Claw-set with an oval citrine carved with a cameo depicting the sinistral profile of Athena.

Wilhelm Schmidt (1845-1938) was born in Idar Oberstein, a town noted for its importance in the gem and jewellery industry, as both an important source of agate and jasper, and as a centre of lapidary and craftsmanship. Apprenticed to the gem-carver Arsène in Paris at the age of 15, Schmidt was trained in the Neoclassical tradition of stone carving, and won numerous awards for his drawings. His work in Paris also introduced him to George Frederick Kunz of Tiffany & Co., who purchased a bust of Ajax by Schmidt on one of his trips to Tiffany & Co.'s Paris branch. 

Upon his graduation in the late 1860s, Schmidt moved to London, where he established a gem-carving business in Hatton Garden with his brother Louis, who took charge of importing the wide variety of rare stones that Wilhelm worked with. Together, they supplied cameos for many important jewellers, including John Brogden, Guiliano and Child & Child, and attracted the attention of collectors such as Abraham Booth.

The present cameo of Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, craft and war, is closely comparable to another citrine cameo by Schmidt, now in the collection of the Natural History Museum, London, collection number BM.1985,MI6564. Additional examples of Schmidt's gem carvings can also be found in the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Cf.: Gertud Seidmann, Wilhelm Schmidt: The Last Neo-Classical Gem-Engraver, Apollo CXXVIII No. 317, London, July 1988, for additional information on the life and works of Wilhelm Schmidt.