Sardonyx, Pearl and Diamond Pendant

Johan Georg Bissinger was born in 1836 in Germany, going on to make a name for himself in Paris as a fine gemstone engraver in the Renaissance and Ancient styles. Georges Bissinger, as he was then known, carved cameos that appeared in jewels by Boucheron and Carlo Giuliano. His cameos are in the Victorian & Albert Museum and the MET Museum on New York. 

Bissinger exhibited at the Paris exhibitions of 1867 and 1878 and was still working in 1904 when the journal Public Opinion admired his work: ‘M. Georges Bissinger's cameos are small as a rule; they are engraved particularly in the antique style, and as such are remarkably successful.’ The jeweller Alexis Falize noted his use of a lathe to simulate lace in his report on the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876.

The extraordinary series of ancient cameos and jewels from the invaluable source of inspiration for Bissinger, who exhibited at the 1878 Paris exhibition, a series of 112 gems copied from examples in the Cabinet des Médailles de la Bibliothèque Nationale France. Their use of material and their Renaissance mountings are reflected in this jewel's stylistic choices and mirror others that he created that are signed to the reverse. This pendant isn't signed but bears a scratch mark to the base that is the same as one in the V&A museum and its other characteristics and fine workmanship are suggestive of Georges Bussinger's work.