A brooch with a pendant loop with one oval cameo. The cameo shows Dionysus and Ariadne: Ariadne is seated facing right, with a drape wrapped around her legs, looking up at the god. He stands before her with his right arm across his chest, holding his thyrsus with his left; a drinking vessel lies at his feet.

The brooch is now part of a parure - an interchangeable set of jewellery. It was not originally part of the parure but perhaps made later to match the set. Parures became fashionable in the 19th century. The ladies attending Princess Charlotte, on her marriage in 1816, wore matching sets of amethysts, chrysolites and topazes given by the Prince Regent. Empress Joséphine and her court were the first to embrace the fashion of Greek dress and cameo jewellery. Ancient, Renaissance and modern Roman copies of engraved gems were set in magnificent parures. By the 1850s the jewellers Castellani and Giuliano from Rome had revived the interest in Archaeological styles in jewellery and gem cutting. Earlier, in England Queen Charlotte is also known to have had a collection of cameo-set jewellery, including a parure with a bandeau of five large and eight small cameos.

Text adapted from Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2008