Théophile Gautier said of cameos: "Each piece was to be a medallion to be set on the lid of a box, a seal to be worn on the finger set in a ring, something that recalled the impressions of ancient medals that we see in painters and sculptors. These brooches, with their antique profiles, delicately placed on the necks of the Romantics of the late 19th century, are the result of an art that goes back to Antiquity.