SAINT PAUL Material: Jasper and gold Size: 6.3 x 4.7 cm Date: ca 1830 An Early 19th Century Russian Jasper Cameo, the oval two-layer greyish-green Siberian jasper plaque finely carved to depict the bust length profile of the Apostle Paul, possibly the work of masters from the Imperial Kolyvan Grinding Factory, to a later beaded gilt metal frame   The cameo reproduces a lead plaque of St Paul by Leonard Posch, and its pair shows a bust of St Peter. They were produced in 1817 or 1818 at the foundry in Gleiwitz in Germany (E. Hintze. Gleiwitzer Eisenkunstguss. Breslau, 1928, S.36, Taf. 69). Both of Posch's models in turn derive from an original from the circle of Antonio Abondio. These Italian plaques were, in the 19th century, reproduced in a variety of materials and were in wide circulation. In 1983 the Hermitage acquired from a private individual a similar cameo to this version of St Paul, with some minor differences, engraved at the end of the 1830s in a similar two-layer greyish-green jasper with an inscription on the reverse of the cameo. This proved to be the work of masters from the Imperial Kolyvan Grinding Factory which existed in the Altai. The attribution was confirmed by archive documents relating to the factory, and it is known that such cameos were engraved there in pairs (Raboty Kamnerezov Kolyvani v Ermitazhe "Works by Stone Carvers of Kolyvan in the Hermitage", exhibition catalogue, Hermitage, Leningrad, 1990, no.92 With thanks to Julia Kagan, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).