Giovanni Pichler (1734-1791) or Luigi Pichler (1773-1854) | Italian, Rome, late 18th century | Intaglio with Perseus, mounted as a pin

The gem fine gem was engraved by a member of the Pichler family, a celebrated family of gem engravers. It was made by the 18th-century engraver Giovanni Pichler or, more probably, his younger brother Luigi.

Giovanni Pichler was born in Naples and trained by his father Antonio Pichler in the art of gem engraving in Rome. In 1769 he was appointed gem engraver to Emperor Joseph II in Vienna. Pichler's fame rapidly increased and he became a favourite of Grand Tourists. He also trained a number of the most famous engravers of the next generation including Filippo Rega and Antonio Berini. An intaglio with Antinous, signed: Pichler (in Greek) which is attributed to Giovanni is in the Royal Collection (inv. no. RCIN 65825).

Upon Giovanni's death in 1791 his workshop was inherited by his half brother Luigi Pichler; see the carnelian with a Victorious Youth as Hercules sold in these rooms on 9 July 2020, lot 50. Luigi went on to work for the Habsburg Imperial family in Vienna and so impressed the French court jeweller François-Régnault Nitot that the latter tried to persuade him to move to Paris. Luigi received many distinctions later in life including a diploma from the Academy of St Luke and membership of the Academy in Venice, as well as, in 1839, Knight's Cross of the Order of St Gregory the Great and, in 1842, of the Order of St Sylvester.

The present intaglio is compositionally similar to an intaglio attributed to Luigi Pichler and representing Omphale in the guise of Hercules (with lionskin headdress) in the British Museum (inv. no. 1867,0507.771) published by O. M. Dalton, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems of the Post-Classical Periods in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography in the British Museum, London, 1915, no. 690. An attribution of the present intaglio to Luigi therefore seems more probable than to his brother Giovanni based on the British Museum example.