Italian or English, 19th century

Compare with a very similar composition by the celebrated engraver William Brown, which is recorded in Tassie/Raspe, no. 6024. Note also an intaglio made for Catherine the Great, which is published in J. Kagan, Gem Engraving in Britain from Antiquity to the Present, p. 344 – 345, 387, cat. no. 184.

William Brown was a significant English gem engraver who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1830. His most important patron was Catherine the Great of Russia, but he also counted George Prince of Wales (later George IV) as one of his patrons. See the intaglio sold in these rooms on 10 December 2015, lot 433. William Brown worked with his brother Charles (1749-1795) first in Gloucester Street and then in Pall Mall from 1776. There is a trade-card for the brothers at 4 Pall Mall from 1781 in the British Museum (inv. no. D,2.2249). Brown exhibited the subject of Hercules a number of times at the Royal Academy.