Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Thanks evelyb I won't call it a cameo, the figure is not on a background, carved in 3D
The clear stones are rosecut tiny diamonds

 

Thanks @Bronwen!
Only the ring needed some improvement for the crack on right:

For the subject of the stickpin, I think you're right, I refered to this bronze of pulcinella:

But Arlequino is more convincing


Anyway, the seller described it as Napoléon... pressed glass!

The veil on your Livia is so well rendered!!!

 

Since I do nearly all my cameo shopping on line, relying on photos & sellers' descriptions alone, I shy away from buying, even when affordable, cameos that are represented as being cut in a precious or semi-precious stone. Even with such a piece in hand, & without benefit of any kind of testing device, I cannot always tell stone from glass. I wrote about it in the last section of this page on hardstone cameos.

OK, you didn't do it with aluminum foil. What did you use to fill? It sounds perverse, but I 'like' the damage on the ring: the fracture is more consistent with stone than with glass. Sometimes the appearance of cracks or chips can be the best visual clue to the nature of a material.

Maybe not exactly, but pieces like this still fall into the realm of engraved gems, & those of us who love cameos love these too.

Sorry to say, she is 'mine' only in that she is in a post of mine, snagged from the Internet. Didn't try to run it down to its source. Probably a museum piece disseminated via Pinterest.

 

Ha, I shop exclusively online now!
On this stone, the adularescence, distinctive for moonstone, was obvious
Your article on your site about hardstone cameos is absolutely a must read! Thank you for sharing your knowledge

My kyratisation on the break was done with UV curing resin I wasn't too much bothered either by the damage, but wanted to have a try
Reversible anyway!

Livia deserved to be yours! I keep too some documentation on my Pinterest in private boards...

 

Think I started saving cameo pix first just of pretty ones with favorite subjects, such as Diana. Then got more & more interested in learning to ID other subjects & started saving examples for comparison with each other as well as ones I couldn't ID but wanted to learn about. There got to be enough of them to start categorizing into folders. Now it is essentially a data base/image bank that provides the raw material for what I put on line.

I have a few public Pinterest boards. Several are for cameos/intaglios I know I will not be writing about. After lucking into one of these, became absolutely fascinated with how complex the manufacture was & looked for others. They're not really within the scope of the web site, but thought they deserved some publicity.

I have the absolutely absurd notion that certain cameos should be mine because, apart from people who have learned it from me, I may be the only person in the cameo world who recognizes the subject, or one of the few who know the signature. If I think I'm especially qualified to appreciate it, it should come to me, no?

 

Cameos are mini works of art and need to go to those who appreciate them. That's my official line anyway. I just picked up a conch shell cameo in a gold-filled setting for the same reason. You are a BAD influence Bronwyn.

 

I do my best. I love conch shell pieces. Think I posted my largest, most elaborate one before, the Dipping of Achilles? Always good to see:


I've shown you mine, now...

 

Got her. Not the best picture, but pretty good for a quick and dirty.

 

It is. Very pretty, would usually be considered a Flora type, although these seem to be sort of an intermediate form between the ones really draped in flowers & the more contemporary women with corsages who became popular by the 30s. Looks to be in excellent condition & the always desirable pendant or pin/pendant setting. Good quality piece, from what I can see. Must have been a satisfying find, no?

 

She turned up on Facebook, of all places. Probably paid about the going rate, but she deserved a good home.

 

I don't 'do' FB & did not realize, until seeing it mentioned here now & then, that there was any buying/selling going on there. Last thing I need is one more place to shop. I used to check etsy regularly, but found most of the cameos there are also on eBay. So many things on Ruby Lane were once on eBay & are now being sold for twice or thrice as much. Occasionally someone asks, Have you seen... & refers me to RL, then I'm likely to see what else is there. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to a big antique jewellery show, where there will be many quite large helmet shell cameos of pretty ladies en habillé with ridiculous asking prices. There will also be many perfectly nice conch shell pieces being represented as angel skin coral, priced accordingly. Have to decide which of my much more interesting eBay acquisitions I will wear.

 

I hope you will have finds to show afterward!

 

Think the main thing that gets found is dealers finding me annoying if I tell them their great big coral cameo with the great big price is really conch shell, or that their antique alexandrite jewellery is lab grown color change sapphire from sometime after 1940. It's a bit weird. They are really all trying to market to each other & are not really set up to sell retail. But are usually too tied up at their own booth to do much looking at others. Have only once actually bought anything. Could not resist this locket with the dancing Pan on the front. The bail doubles as the hinge & is set with little rubies. Both halves are carnelian. Sometime must try for better photos, but these give the idea:


Should probably also put it on white; it does not look quite so dark in person. Still has glass for both interior compartments.

Dealers are generally not keen to have you photograph their wares & so much of what I see is super-bling, which I find boring. There are only a handful of dealers who ever have anything to my taste.

 

One more reason I don't bother with shows most of the time. The prices are either retail or over retail, and even if I do find something I like I can't afford the highway robbery. I did however just some really nice pieces on this blog. No image - the best one is of a lady with no clothes on.
http://thejewelryloupe.com/art-nouveau-master-philippe-wolfers/comment-page-1/#comment-141211

 

Whoa! I'm definitely living in the wrong jewellery age. That is one scary Medusa. The swan right below could use a Leda.

I go to the show to see what's around, make connections & only because this one is cheap & easy for me to get to. These days I also get comped in, so, what's to lose?

 

An entire day and a bucket of drool?(LOL) That Medusa was a bit over the top, but I'm betting someone loved it and some Goth kid would freak.

 

@Any Jewelry Just for you:


For some reason an eminent glyptics scholar whom I very much respect & love disagrees, without proposing an alternative, but I think this has to be Vulcan getting drunk in his forge, and my best interpretation of the entire scene is that it is part of the story of how Vulcan, angry at his mother Juno, who rejected him, devises a golden throne to which she is stuck fast after sitting down on it. When pleading does not persuade the smith to undo his work, Bacchus is sent to get him drunk. In his stupor, Vulcan is then conveyed to Juno's palace on an ass, where he releases her. The female figure in the background is a bit of a puzzle. I work her in as representing Juno's fury; she appears to be holding thunderbolts in her hand, a symbol of wrath. Until I find the primary art work, will have to remain tentative.

 

I see Vulcan, Bacchus, some cherubs. and a random female. As for what's going on besides the usual drunken mayhem, not a clue.

 

I only see the one, in this case presumably Cupid, since the others are identifiable figures, with a bent arrow on the ground next to him, where Vulcan made a mess of it. Am I missing one? Wouldn't be the first time.

 

I thought there was a second one under the first. Now it looks like Bacchus' foot and a stool.