Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Thanks Bronwen and Kyratango.
I am thinking of starting to collect cameos in a serious way, and have been looking at some of the cameos I bought when I was not really that interested in cameos but rather in "Victorian jewelry" so would add cameos to my collection just because of their age. I have so much to learn! Love the ones you posted Bronwen.

 

I’m in the air on which of these ladies is coming to live with me next. A few I can identify but some I’m in the air on in age or material. I thought the thread would like to see them just the same.

This first one is set on a 10k necklace and is listed as a “black onyx cameo” but I’ve seen these called sardonyx. No guess on age from seller.

This next one looks very much like either bone or ivory. Hard to tell by the pictures but the back sure looks old. Seller doesn’t know the age either and just called it antique.

This one is listed coral & 1940’s


And this last one I’m confident is modern. Listed as from Italy, shell.

Decisions, decisions...

 

Sardonyx is brown/reddish brown with white layers and onyx is black with white layers... https://www.gemrockauctions.com/learn/did-you-know/sard-sardonyx-and-carnelian-whats-the-difference

 

Can't decide if this is a game of tag or hot potato.

 

I'm going with ivory.

 

The only one I would advise you against is the last one, the modern helmet shell piece, even though it is signed, unless she really really appeals to you and/or is really really cheap. I don't think she will hold value over time.

First one is 'hardstone', the generic term used for chalcedony (microcrystalline quartz) when it is used for gem engraving. The word 'onyx' comes from the Greek for fingernail, which is what chalcedony looks like in its purest form. The color probably most people know best is cornelian/carnelian (orange - red); brown, especially when very dark, is called sard. A stone with layers of white & dark brown is 'sardonyx'. The word 'chalcedonyx' is used for a stone like this one:



Chalcedony does not occur in nature in black, it has to be dyed to that color; the Romans were already doing it. Although we use it that way all the time, it is not really accurate to call black chalcedony simply 'onyx'.

Cameos of this type continue to be made, so it is difficult to say how old the one in the necklace is.

The second one is ivory, probably French. See similar here:

https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/ivory-cameos-reliefs/mythological/

The coral Diana is probably somewhat earlier than the 40s, going by the type of safety clasp. From an investment point of view, this one is the best bet. The ivory presents the problem of what becomes of it in future, whether it can be resold or even given to someone who will be comfortable receiving it. Would you be comfortable wearing it now? My objection to the hardstone cameo is mainly that these 'noblewoman' types are common, without the allure of a mythological or historical identity to go with them.

In the end it comes down to personal preference & finances.

 

The latter. I'm leaving the art historian bit to the artist.

 

Black chalcedony does exist naturally but it is rare..... https://www.jckonline.com/magazine-article/black-chalcedony/

 

Author makes this statement, 'Pure black chalcedony is rare', but does not support it in any way. It may be out there somewhere, but it is safe to assume that any hardstone cameo with a black layer has been treated. Any time the color is deep & even, dye has to be suspected. I put some photos of cameos in untreated stone at the end for comparison.

This, 'by definition, onyx should have straight parallel stripes of black and white', is true insofar as in the glyptics world 'onyx' is used in combination, not by itself. The non-white layer does not have to be black. The notion that the distinction between 'onyx' & 'agate' is whether or not the color layers are 'wavy, curved, or irregular' is an eccentric one; the material is routinely called 'banded' or 'ribbon' agate when the layers are straight & parallel.

Without photos, I'm not even sure what author is writing about. From opening, I would have thought topic was the solid colored stone used for all those flip rings with a little diamond set in black stone on one side, often a cameo on the other. Then there's something about what to call it if a stone that is naturally black & white has been dyed to all black. Then we're off to druse crystal formations & the arbitrary nature of modern cameo prices. Just as well he did not explain nicolo.

This bit mystifies me completely: 'Polished black onyx scratches fairly easily and the scratches are noticeable, which is why most carvings are matte-finished.' They are?

This illustration shows some of what the JCK author is describing. The section labeled 'a' was left in its natural state; all others were subjected to one treatment or another, most involving saturation with a solution & heat. Different layers have different degrees of porosity, leading to the different results given by the same treatment.


Grabbing an assortment from my Bacchus file, just to show that not all hardstone cameos are so tidy:

 

EXCELLENT!
The different parts of the agate are very informative to show the effects of treatments

 

So much to learn, I love this thread.

 

So far, the best i have to offer is "collage."

 

I am so enjoying this thread, and have gone back and ogled the wonderful cameos shown here over the past few years.

Boy, I am rapidly realizing I have not been a smart cameo buyer because I almost always looked at the setting first, and the cameo very much second. Big mistake.

So I have a lot of mediocre cameos set in gold frames. Oh well time to learn!

Here is a shell cameo that I regret parting with. Even though the carving is not the finest the subject matter is fantastic. But, I didn't like the setting and so was more than willing to sell it for not too much. Which I did, silly me.

 

The Cupid Seller makes a delightful cameo subject. The original fresco was found in the excavation of Stabiae, one of the towns buried in the eruption of Vesuvius that also buried Pompeii.



Bertel Thorvaldsen drew inspiration from it for his Ages of Love:


And I have to think his Shepherdess with a Nest of Cupids also owes something to it:



I always see this as Psyche after her marriage to Cupid:

 

It's possible cutter cobbled it together from 2 or 3 different versions. I have a Raphaelesque Madonna that appears to be a mix of elements from several.

 

She’s here! I found this one online a few days ago and she arrived today: The shell has that “bloom” but I loved the carving from what I could see in the pictures. No markings anywhere on the metal but it polished up like silver. I’ll use a scratch test later to check what it is. It has a C clasp, there is a spot on the bezel that looks suspiciously like someone acid tested this right on the metal.

 

A lovely Diana, wearing a nebris, a deer or fawn skin, although artists seem to have made these rather shaggy, perhaps so we'd know for sure it was an animal skin. This Ariadne is similarly clad:

http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/CFFFEA0E-6F00-4942-BF09-BA5293AA6B26

She does need to be cleaned up to prevent the Byne's from spreading, and then kept well ventilated in future.

It is probably silver, but quite likely 800 rather than 925. She gets the Cameo Times Seal of Approval.

 

I have a new one too.. she is glass, isn't it ? And I think the setting might be silver, but I haven't tested it yet.. she needs a good cleaning, that's for sure..

 

Yes, Czech glass cameo. They were sold as jewellery components, so mount was probably made elsewhere.

The underlying glass seems often to have been this cream color, & then some were painted to resemble shell cameos, both helmet & conch. Or tutti frutti.

 

Only if you want her completely monochromatic. In my experience, the paint is water soluble.