King Peleus… father to be of Achilles of the vulnerable heel…
marries the sea nymph Thetis and neglects to invite the evil goddess
of Discord, Eris. Crowds of Centaurs attend among them–I am
presuming–the Centaur Dorylas. Eris makes trouble … creates
jealousies. And now things get a tad muddled… I am having great
difficulties determining correct sequential events. However at one
point or another in time Peleus and Dorylas enter into battle and
Peleus hurls an arrow at Dorylas which imbeds intself into the
Centaur’s forehead pinning his hand–which he held up to protect
himself-- to the aforementioned brow. And that… thanks be to the
fates… is all you need to know. A quick digression. I wouldn’t mind
getting the straight story if one of you have it.
And so we come by way of arcane meanderings to a Chalcedony
Intaglio… a gold and enamel pendant of early 19th century
origins… depicting Peleus fleeing from Dorylas whom he has wounded
in the front and about whom you now have a rather inchoate,
incomplete, and sparse background. We here at Tyler-Adam Corp aim at
confusion if nothing else. I do hope we’re doing a good job. Please
let me know.
This Chaldedony cameo was once part of a collection of carved gems
owned by Prince Stanislas Poniatowski who was nephew to King
Stanislas Augustus of Poland. Poniatowski who–let’s call him Poni
for short–upon his death had a collection of 2601 gems. Ah … the
whims of the idle rich. Why don’t I have 2601 carved gems signed by
varied Gerco-Roman engravers? Could it be because I ain’t no prince?
All that aside… this collection… which falls under category of
Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Collection of Antique Gems of Prince
Poniatowski Deceased… contains the Intaglio of which I speak…
and of which I have an image. It is framed within a black enamel and
gold border of openwork palmette and lotus flower design. It
measures 46 x 28mm and it bears the fake signatuRe: KP?MOU. Middle
letter is “omega”. Why would someone not want the world to know he
created this piece? Ah man… thou art indeed a puzzlement.
And so I cry that old refrain: Wanna see?
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at http://www.tyler-adam.com where you
will scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that
says Current Tidbits… and you will see represented on our pages an
Intaglio created by an unknown.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week.
Benjamin Mark