Exquisite portrait cameo of Lucien Bonaparte by Giovanni Dies carved in Bulls Mouth conch c.1810. Signed to the front.
High carat frame. 1.5inches by 1 inch
 
Giovanni Dies (1796-1839) was one of the most successful cameo carvers in Rome selling to the Grand Tourists,with an annual turnover of £5000 in the early c19th. Works are included in the British Museum.
 
Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Français,Prince of Canino and Musignano( 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840),the younger brother of Napoleon,was a Corsican-French statesman, who served as the final President of the Council of Five Hundred at the end of the French Revolution.
Lucien Bonaparte was the inspiration behind the Napoleonic reconstitution of the dispersed Académie Française in 1803, where he took a seat. He collected paintings in la maison de campagne at Brienne, was a member of Récamier's salon and wrote a novel, La Tribu Indienne. He was an amateur archeologist, establishing excavations at his property in Frascati.It seems likely this cameo was carved c.1810.