Agate Carving of a Chimpanzee by Gerd Dreher


Idar-Oberstein, GermanyRetailed by Asprey & Co, London, England This realistically rendered figure of a chimpanzee is a signature piece of Dreher and exhibits the range of his work. Taking full advantage of the natural color banding of the original specimen of agate, while isolating the intricate face and hands in pale yellow against the deeper brown body with its realistic texturing of fur. With inset black and white agate eyes having 24 karat gold foil backing. This is an important lapidary masterwork and one which should form the center of any important collection. Inscribed with maker's mark GD for Gerd Dreher. Height 2 3/4 in (7.00cm)
|Gerd DreherThe 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 was 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 was a keenly observant naturalist who maintained 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 Fabergé 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."