Ametrine Carving of a Rooster by Gerd Dreher


Circa 1999Idar-Oberstein, GermanyA proudly strutting rooster is beautifully depicted through the use of the varied shades of a single piece of Bolivian bi-color yellow and purple quartz—known as ametrine. Ametrine is a naturally occurring variety of quartz and is a mixture of amethyst and citrine with zones of purple and yellow. Almost all commercially available ametrine is mined in Bolivia. Successfully using these zones of color, Dreher has rendered the cock's comb of citrine and the body of amethyst, shading into citrine and back into amethyst at the tail. The gem material is highly transparent and the body has been beautifully textured to suggest the feathers of the rooster. The eyes are set with natural banded agate, while the feet are of 18K yellow gold. Inscribed with GD monogram for Gerd Dreher. 18K gold feet stamped 750. Height 3 3/4in (9.5cm), Weighing 196 grams.
|Published in Dreher Carvings, Gemstone Animals from Idar-Oberstein, Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, 2017, page 94. Provenance: Purchased from Bonhams & Butterfields, Los Angeles, Natural History, December 3, 2003, Sale 14046, Lot 8425.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."