Born in Hanau, Germany, Johan Georg (Georges) Bissinger settled in Paris and set up his own workshop. He sold a portrait cameo to the Empress Eugénie in 1867 and swiftly gained success, winning a gold medal in the 1877 Paris Salon. He exhibited at the Weltausstellung in Vienna in 1873, the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, and most importantly the Exposition Universelle in 1878, where he won both a gold and a silver medal. Bissinger continued working into the early 1900s; in 1904 the journal Public Opinion wrote “M. Georges Bissinger's cameos are small as a rule; they are engraved particularly in the antique style, and as such are remarkably successful.” His most celebrated works included portraits of living and historical monarchs such as Elizabeth I and Marie de’ Medici. Bissinger generally signed his works in cursive on the reverse, as on the present lot, and many of his cameos are set in jeweled mounts from English workshops.
