Greek, Hellenistic, 3rd - 1st century B.C.

Amethyst

L: 1.30 cm - W: 0.90 cm

Serial: 17383

Provenance: Ex- Félix-Bienaimé Feuardent (1819-1907) and Louise-Antoinette Feuardent (1818-1907) family collection, collected in the 19th century.

Charming amethyst intaglio engraved with a standing Herakles holding his club on his shoulder and a mask turned towards him in his other hand.

The Feuardent collections started around the middle of the 19th century with a Cherbourg family and continued to develop by the following generations.

Born in 1819, Felix-Bienaime Feuardent, after having worked as a bookseller-numismatist in his hometown, left Cherbourg in 1845 for Paris, to settle down with the numismatist Camille Rollin. His professional reputation very quickly encouraged him to expand his activity and to open additional offices in New York, Berlin and London which earned him a reputation as an international expert.

Two of his children, born of his union with Louise-Antoinette Casini (Gaston-Louis, born in 1843 and Leon-Felix, born in 1849) and three of his grandchildren (born between 1872 and 1877) took over from the house of antiquities and numismatics until the approach of the second world war.

Jewels that still burn with all their fires, including yellowed photos and two portraits that now adorn the walls of the Paul Getty Museum and the Fine Arts Museum in Boston are what remains of this dynasty of antique collectors: portraits of two pioneers, Felix-Bienaime and Louise Antoinette, preserved for a century by four generations and of which Jean-Francois Millet was, in 1841, the painter and illustrious witness to marriage.