Fifteen Medallions With Profile Portraits. Hardwood, Metal. 19th Century.

Fifteen medallions with profile portraits. Hardwood, metal. 19th century.
Set of tondos with a suspension ring featuring profile portraits of historical figures on the front and an inscription and number on the back. Hardwood is a paste of very fine sawdust (usually ebony or rosewood) mixed with albumen (blood or egg white) or gelatin, which was poured into molds to give the desired shape by pressure and heat. This technique was patented in Paris in 1885 by François Lepage and has been widely used ever since for the manufacture of small objects. The characters are referred to by name: "Prince Albert" (Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, husband of Queen Victoria of England), "Napoleon, Prince Imperial / born March 1856" (Napoleon Eugène Louis Bonaparte, son of Napoleon III and Eugénie de Montijo), "Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour" (Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Italian statesman and important figure on the road to the unification of Italy), "F. Mendelssohn" (Felix Mendelssohn, German Romantic composer, conductor and pianist), "Michael Cervantes" (Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Spanish writer), "Napoleon II Emperor / 1859" (Carlos Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870), "St. Vincent de Paul" (Saint Vincent de Paul, French priest) 18th century canonized in 1737), »Victor Hugo« (French romantic poet, playwright and novelist, who was also an influential 19th century politician and intellectual), "J. Haydn" (the Austrian composer known as Joseph Haydn), "Rossini" (Gioachino Rossini was an Italian composer famous for his operas The Barber of Seville, Othello, William Tell? -), "Pius IV Pontifex Maximus" (Giovanni Angelo Medici was elected Pope of the Catholic Church under the name Pius IV between 1559 and 1565), "Leopold I King of the Belgians" (Leopold Beorg Christian Friedrich was a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who became the first King of the Belgians in 1831), "W.A. Mozart" (the famous Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a German composer, pianist, conductor and teacher, master of classicism), "Beethoven" (Ludwig van Beethoven[a] was a German composer, conductor, pianist and piano teacher), "Victoria Queen of England" (Victoria was the queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901). Some private collections and institutions, such as the National Museum of Romanticism in Madrid, have specimens similar to those presented here. -
Size: 11x11x1 cm