Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Thanks Kyra, I saved that link!!!

 

Here's the jet-set cameo, and one that turned up this afternoon. The little one, on closer inspection, is cracked.(sigh) On the upside I only paid $20 for it including tax.

 

Think you're right that the jet-set lady & her mount were introduced in a second marriage. These 'corsage ladies', as I call them, are more 1920s/30s, while the jet frames seem to have been in vogue a good 50 or more years before. And you're right, she does look cut down at the edge; they are usually left at least a bit of a border.

The little Flora is quite a pretty piece. The photo is not showing a through & through crack. Is it more of a hairline, really only visible when the light is behind the piece? They are usually described as 'commensurate with age' & are not regarded as fatal flaws, unless threatening to break up the piece or mar the appearance under ordinary viewing conditions.

Seeing the 2 together really highlights how the quality of work fell off after the early 20th century. The skill & care employed are a large part of why I think kyratango's new treasure is Victorian.

 

It seems really visible from the back, but not the front. No clue what the setting is made from; I haven't tested it. The dealer only charged $20 for her, and I figured she needed a rescue. This is a picture of the backs. There were three half pearls in the jet frame, but two are long gone. I'm not sure if the crack is visible or not.

 

The rope edged frame looks like silver, probably 800 fineness. The crack appears not to be serious. Considerations are whether it breaks into the figure (usually not), whether it is easily visible from the front, & whether the piece is in danger of breaking apart/falling out of setting. Most of the time they are visible only when light shines through.

Seeing the back, I am even more convinced the cameo is not original to the jet mount. Not sure I've seen one before that was designed to be reversible, although plenty of the flip rings that have a cameo on one side & a black onyx stone with a little diamond on the other. May have had a conch shell cameo originally.

 

I wouldn't be surprised; someone seriously liked that old jet mount and did some rather delicate work on that newer cameo to get it to fit. It's definitely reversible; it reverses itself on me at random sometimes.

 

I just posted this info in a glass/pottery thread. Thought it would be a good idea to also stick it up here. Victorian era reference books.

Duffield Osborne
See also his other works & those of C.W. King available through links at the bottom of the page.

Archibald Billing.

The Beazley Archive.

 

I have difficulty judging depth from photos, & sometimes a pic will look one way to me when I first examine it & different the next time I see it.

I see now that the back of your little Flora may be flat, also that she looks just like this one. No 2 hand carved cameos are identical, even the same subject by the same hand. When in doubt whether natural or artificial material, there's nothing like finding a twin to settle the matter.

 

They're close, but not identical. The backing is definitely shell; I'm not sure about the face itself.

 

It will not be shell on the back with something else affixed to it. Not that it's impossible, it just isn't done. Very occasionally I run into a cameo that has the carving done in shell & then attached to a chalcedony background, & was recently given one I was told was shell on agate but is actually shell on glass done in a very sophisticated way. If you're going to make a cameo in 2 pieces, you want something sturdier than thin shell for the background. I expect both layers of yours are the same material, whether natural or artificial.

I do not see any differences between the 2 figures that cannot be accounted for by our not seeing them both at precisely the same angle (it's amazing what a difference angle of viewing can make to how a cameo looks) & the distorting effects of the grime on the other one. The difference in background color is immaterial, like different dye lots. When I compare the rose at the ear & 3 leaves above it, I just see no difference at all.



If this were something I was considering buying, but not sure whether shell or resin, I would ask the seller whether the back is flat or concave & if it would be possible to have a photo taken edge on, showing the line of the bezel & where the figure meets the ground. Without, I would not feel I had enough info to know what I was getting & would pass it by.

You have a better view & information about it besides the visual. What is convincing you the back is shell?

 

That is a gorgeous cameo. I am trying to learn who the mythological women are on them. Athena, Artemis, Hera, Aphrodite.... pretty easy for me to ID. The others I am learning. Hebe feeds the eagle, correct? What bird is that on the Aurora cameo?

 

That is what the CameoTimes web site is all about, helping people ID the subjects & learn a little of the stories. The article on Aurora shows typical presentations & attributes.

Ornithology on cameos tends to be a bit wobbly. Owls, swans & peacocks are usually rendered unambiguously, but eagles & doves are not always so clear. Hebe & the Eagle is a case where the bird is a participant in the action; most of the time birds are there just to help identify the figure. The ones accompanying Aurora are ones that wake up with the dawn, usually seen as doves. See the article on Day & Night for a related subject & the trouble with birds.

It's not just carvers who have trouble with birds. Can't tell you how many times I have seen Hebe & the Eagle described as Leda & the Swan. Granted the eagle is often in a contorted position, but still...

 

I agree with evelyb30. Look at the forehead element. Look at the drapery at the bottom. Compare the tresses at the back of the head.

Obviously both from the same original, but not identical.

 

The important issue is not whether they are identical down to the last particle of material, it is whether they are too much alike not to have been made from a mold. The seller identifies the one on the right as artificial; the question is whether the one on the left is as well. There is no assumption that they came from the very same mold or even that they were made by the same company.

Molds that were made from other molds instead of directly from the original modeling, like photocopies of photocopies, are liable to lose some detail, especially around the edges & in things like the slender end of a tendril.

In the manufacturing process, the layers of color are not necessarily laid down perfectly. Sometimes when you examine such a piece you find that the missing tendril tip is there, but in the orange layer because the casting could have used a smidge more white before the background layer was poured.

In my experience, no two hand carved pieces are alike to this degree. If it were confirmed for me that the back of the cameo on the left is flat, I would be 100% certain, no matter how convincing the color, that it is resin, not shell.

Here are two cameos of the same subject done by the same hand:



The differences between them are far greater than those between the two little Floras.

 

I love cameos to death..... I do prefer female subjects. There was a 14k (supposedly) floral cameo for sale (pendant/brooch) on the large side for sale at a local thrift and the lady bought it for $40. From what I could see, there was too much crazing for my taste, and I don't buy to scrap. It as unmarked, but looked to be 14k by my eye. Thank, great sites!!!

 

That lamp is gorgeous..... I would love to find one as beautiful.

It is supposed to be a howling blizzard here, so I have some old pics of some of my cameos that I will share, no great shakes, just part of the collection.

I pick them up when reasonable....

This is probably 800 silver, Victorian? Edwardian? wear to the metal and cameo, but I love it. Flea market find, $15

I love queen conch shell (is that correct?) cameos

Cameo that reminded me of Snow White with that collar

Modern GF bracelet marked Kara Lynn

 

800 silver gold washed earrings picked up at an estate sale for $5 (the lady in charge of jewelry never showed up to price anything, it was all basically $5 a piece/set, even the 14k gold items)

Van Dell set, GF, antique mall purchase for $9

Just a GF cameo

These were sold as costume, $12, antique mall, they are 10k screwbacks

I have been trying to figure out how to sort my jewelry collection (you just don't want to know), and I do have all the sterling and gold-filled jewelry sorted (all fine is in a safety deposit box), and I think a good way is to sort the silver from the GF, and then sort the cameos into a separate category. I do have some costume sorted into faux pearls and seasonal, but the rest is a mess....

 

I don't know about death, but I love them to what may end as poverty.

If you want it for personal use, not for sale, any price is too much if it's not to your taste. Resisting buying such things just because they are a good deal is a good way to save money for when something you really do like comes along.

Someone, man presumably, really loved that ring. It is actually quite a nice cameo. Considering the amount of wear to the silver, cameo is in surprisingly good shape. Looks like Mars. I don't know about jewellery in general the way I know about cameos specifically, so can't say much about the ring itself. Overall shape is still made; perhaps the decoration will give someone else a clue. With cameos, it is always possible they are older than the setting. I have a cameo done by someone who died before 1860 set in 14K gold with a Soviet hallmark.

Exactly right. I love it too.

I'm not the only one who has noticed that some cameos come along in clusters, then disappear again. Ladies in such collars are more usually done in hardstone. Just last night fielded an inquiry from someone asking about a cameo similar to yours & I told them I couldn't remember seeing that subject in that material before. Now this one. Should be a third sometime soon.

 

Bronwen, may I ask if you subscribe to Cameo Times, and if you do, what subscription would you recommend? Have you ever been to the cameo factories in Italy? I missed them when I was there in 1996, but I do want to go back and visit spending maybe two days there....my biggest jewelry regret in my life is not buying a 14k Birth of Venus cameo in a shop on Old Bridge in Florence.....