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Lot 167
Agate Carving of a Goose By Gerd Dreher
7 December 2016, 10:00 PST
Los AngelesSold for US$1,500 inc. premium
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Agate Carving of a Goose By Gerd Dreher
Idar-Oberstein, Germany
The water fowl carved from a single specimen of Brazilian banded agate, with excellent translucency at the neck. The eyes are formed of small cabochon sapphires, rimmed in yellow gold. The highly detailed feet form of 18K yellow gold and signed with monogram GD, the body signed with monogram GD for Gerd Dreher, height 4 1/4 in
The water fowl carved from a single specimen of Brazilian banded agate, with excellent translucency at the neck. The eyes are formed of small cabochon sapphires, rimmed in yellow gold. The highly detailed feet form of 18K yellow gold and signed with monogram GD, the body signed with monogram GD for Gerd Dreher, height 4 1/4 in
Footnotes
Gerd Dreher
The exquisitely detailed animal carvings of Gerd Dreher make his works among the most sought-after masterpieces of the lapidary arts. Born in 1943 in Idar-Oberstein, Gerd is a fourth generation animal figure carver. Dreher's family has been involved in the art of engraving and carving gemstones for nearly two hundred years. A long-established family tradition of producing hardstone and gem animal carvings was begun in the 19th Century and by the early 1900s their name was synonymous with that of the jeweler, Carl Fabergé. The Russian master, on his frequent trips to Idar, would provide plaster models of whimsical animal carvings, which the Dreher family would create out of jasper, agate and jade. Fabergé then sold them in his famed salons in St. Petersburg, Moscow and London.
Gerd is a keenly observant naturalist who maintains a massive library of videotapes of animals in motion. His devotion to realism in muscle and animation is what sets his carvings apart. In 2004 a major retrospective exhibition of 60 works entitled The Gem Carvings of Gerd Dreher: A Faberge Legacy, was held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. In the words of Joel Bartsch, Curator of Gems and Minerals for the Museum, "Dreher's ability to breathe life into stone has made him one of the most famous practitioners of the craft in the world today. His work is a marriage of art and science."