The art of intaglio engraving on metal or a gemstone is a highly skilled craft that dates back 5,000 years to Mesopotamia where cylindrical stone seals were incised with intricate motifs. In jewellery, early signet rings inscribed with hieroglyphs have been discovered in Egyptian tombs and are believed to have been used as wax seals, much like the Grecians and Romans used them as a personal identification on official documents.
Intaglio is a reverse carved style of hand engraving that creates a depression of varying depths in the material, which is the opposite of cameo carving, and takes years to master the intricacies. The earliest motifs were of gods, mythological figures and animals or portraits of rulers. Some of the finest collections of decorative Roman seals were assembled by the Georgians on their Grand Tours of Europe. Thus influenced, the use of wax seals bearing a family crest was widely adopted by the Georgians and Victorians as the practice of letter-writing grew.
Some miniature marvels spanning two millennia of history were recently exhibited at antique jewellery specialist S.J. Phillips who has examples of 16th-century Roman intaglio rings of warriors carved in hard stone and a sweet 18th century garnet intaglio ring of a bird bearing an olive branch. This early workmanship illustrates this skill as one of the noblest art forms.
Specialists in ancient art, Kallos Gallery breathes new life into ancient intaglios from the 1st and 2nd century, mostly Roman, by framing them in modern settings, maintaining their integrity and showcasing the craftsmanship of those early hard stone carvers. Some of the intaglios at Kallos have survived the centuries still intact in their original ring settings.
In the USA, Seal & Scribe shares that love of the history and mystique of antique intaglio rings, mostly Victorian and Georgian era. Some were quite utilitarian, especially the desk seals but Seal & Scribe turns them into miniature works of art set in rings or pendants and decorated with precious gems. While others were probably jewels originally etched in carnelian and amethyst and now re-set in gold rings.
The historic revivalism for all things Roman and Georgian we are currently seeing in popular culture suggests we are on the cusp of a new era for intaglios. An intaglio signet ring is a vessel for storytelling and there are specialist goldsmiths like Castro Smith and the hand engravers at Rebus who can create that magic. Today it is mostly in metal, which is a different skill to carving hard stone. Nevertheless, Rebus who specialises in bespoke intaglio signet rings in metal or sardonyx stone (a rare skill to find in the UK today) is creating modern family heirlooms like their Claddagh rings. Their extraordinary artistry comes to the fore in the romantic gothic motifs and Japanese folkloric designs at Castro Smith who talks about the “hills and valleys of engraving to get the fine details” – a seal is typically 1-2mm deep, and for example a Mongolian horseman took him five days to engrave.
