Cameo with a head of Medusa, sea nymph and most beautiful of the three Gorgon sisters, in high relief, facing in three-quarter profile to the left, with wings in her hair and snakes surrounding her face.

Christian Zincke’s miniature of Queen Caroline in coronation robes (RCIN 421820) shows a large gold brooch at her breast portraying the head of Medusa, framed with either diamonds or white enamel. Although no such brooch is mentioned in the accounts of the coronation, nor painted in any other portraits of the Queen, the head of Medusa was typically depicted on the aegis of Minerva and the brooch may therefore have been an invocation by the artist of this association.

Several cameos carved with heads of Medusa remain in the Royal Collection although it is not possible to trace them in the inventories of Queen Caroline’s collection. However, the pre-1755 list drawn up by Mrs Purcell notes a group of stones ‘set in gold and enamelled’. No description is made of the subject matter of the gems but this may refer to a number of cameos with similar mounts which have been attributed to the Parisian jeweller Jean Vangrol or his workshop. Two other groups of cameos with mounts attributed to Vangrol were certainly in Caroline’s collection (RCIN 65746 – 53 and 65763 – 70), and the jewel mounted with several cameos (RCIN 65256) may also have been a product of his workshop. It is possible that Queen Caroline received this group of French-mounted gems from Elisabeth Charlotte of the Palatine (see no. RCIN 65256).

The reverse of the stone appears to have been re-polished, probably before being set in the present mount.

Text adapted from Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2008 and The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy 1714 - 1760, London, 2014