Pair of Sulphide Portrait Plaques
Manufacturer: Compagnie des Verreries et Cristalleries de Baccarat (French, 1764-present)
Manufacturer: Baccarat Glasshouse (French)
Date: about 1820-1830
Dimensions:
H: 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm)
Medium: Colorless lead glass, mold-made sulphide inclusion; cut, polished. Cutting on the reverse.
Place of Origin: Baccarat, Paris
Classification: Glass
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 2010.17
Label Text:Popular during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, cameo incrustation, or “sulphide,” is achieved by encasing in molten glass a molded relief ornament made from a mix of clay and potash. This special ceramic does not melt or crack in the hot glass, but permanently fuses to it. The refraction of light through the lead glass lends the white cameos their distinct silver-metallic sheen—a clever and innovative optical illusion. These particular sulphides immortalize the profiles of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Created decades after the French Revolution and the royal couple’s executions, such plaques likely would have been owned by French Royalists as commemorative wall decorations.
DescriptionEach plaque suspended by a gilt-bronze hasp, enclosing opposing profile portraits of Marie Antoinette after a medal by Pierre Duvivier and of Louis XVI after a medal by J.P. Droz
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In Collection(s)