Jean Henri Simon

This beautifully engraved intaglio is signed ΣIMON, a signature which was recorded by Dr Hermann Rollet in the 1888 Allgemeine Kunst Chronik as having been employed by the Jewish Belgian gem cutter Jean Henri Simon, who was the most celebrated of a dynasty of engravers. His biography in the Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums, 1841 (pp 694, 710) states that several of his unsigned gems were acquired by Catherin the Great of Russia; a gem signed ΣIMON is in the Hermitage, St Petersburg (inv. no. И-12730). Simon also worked for French kings, Louis XVI, Charles X, Louis Philippe, and even Napoleon and Empress Josephine. His son, Jean Marie Amable Simon (1788 - 1866), was trained by the father and is known to have signed gems: Simon fils.