Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Catalogue of Important Artistic Objects in Carved Rock, Crystal, Lapis-Lazuli and Ivory: Being Nineteenth Century Reproductions by Hermann Ratzersdorfer, Vienna, and Moritz Keller, Berlin, of Famous Antiques in European Treasure Houses
Regarded as well-nigh the equal of a precious stone, rock crystal has for centuries served the skillful Gem cutter and Engraver as a means of displaying the ex treme of his artistic aptitude. Carved into the quaint est or the most beautiful of forms, its effect heightened by mountings of silver or gold, enamelled in the most pleasing of colors and set with a profusion of costly jewels, this material has taken an honored place in the Treasure Houses of Kings, as of Commonwealths. Es pecially did its inherent suggestion of costly luxury appeal to the mind of the later Italian Renaissance and, of the examples which have come down to our own day, the majority must claim a Florentine, a Venetian or some North Italian Atelier as their birth place. Seldom, however, has the collector a chance of acquiring a Sixteenth Century carved rock crystal oi' real importance. They have found their final resting places in such gatherings of by-gone royalties as fill the celebrated Green Gallery as Dresden or in great na tional collections, such as that of the Louvre Museum, and only at such dispersals as the great Spitzer sale has the individual connoisseur an opportunity to vie with his fellows in their acquisition.
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