Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Thank you, Bronwen.
Honestly, it looked like a winged blob with frogs legs coming out both ends!

 

If the expression were not so stern, I would have said the engraver was going for Athena. I find this one very ambiguous.

 

I do actually see the dragon on that one!

 

That's why I wanted you to see a more accurate example.

This is because I keep overlooking the very lightly etched sideburns!

Going out now.

 

St John the Evangelist is often depicted with long hair and an eagle but... is that a snake in a bag in the background?

 

A snake in a chalice. I forget how it goes, but there's something about an attempt to poison him. With that info, you'll be able to find it quickly.

 

Eye candy:

https://books.google.com/books?id=P...FXoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=saulini cameos&f=false

 

This is going to sound soooo snotty. I have a copy, signed by Draper. I made him do it in compensation for standing me up the first time we had an appointment. He forgot; it was intimated to me by others that it was not the first time. He's a brilliant guy & when you mention his name to anyone who knows him, the first thing they say is, Oh, I love him. He has retired now. We met several more times, when I had accumulated a few more cameos I thought might interest him. I miss him very much.

 

That's wonderful!

 

For fun, I was just perusing facebook marketplace for cameos. I'm not looking to buy, just passing the time.

My first thoughts were, "oh dear, look at ALL the ponytail girls... and the noses, all the sad/weird/missing noses... and wow, some people are really loose with the word 'cameo'..."

My second thought was, "well, I have definitely learned some things!"

 

I, too, am thankful for this thread and the things that I've learned from it. I now find that, unfortunately, each time I see a cameo that I really want, its price is always over $500, often over $1000. I've developed expensive taste!

 

That's really great to hear from both of you. I wanted this thread to help people learn to distinguish quality from junk.

It's true that as you go along your eye begins to rest on cameos that are not so cheap anymore. What knowledge lets you do is recognize when they are still underpriced. The hardstone cameo I have as my avatar is signed by Filippo Tignani, set in a plain ring. As I recall, it cost me about $200. What my knowledge did for me: made me check the photo of the back to see if there was a signature; enabled me to recognize, although the 1 photo did not show all of the back & around the edges it was obscured with accumulated grunge anyway, was that the 'ig' that was clearly visible could be part of 'Tignani', a well documented 19th century gem engraver. Wasn't 100% sure, but ring was still worth $200, so... Cleaned her up when she arrived and found my gamble had paid off. I'll let you check out other Filippo Tignani cameos on line.

I don't know if knowledge is power. But someday, when I'm ready to part with her, knowledge will be profit.

 

Hopefully, the knowledge I've gained from this thread will lead to a profit for me, too!
This one was a very recent purchase. He was not advertised as Washington, possibly because the seller is in the UK. Seller dated him as "antique Victorian". I'm not really interested in wearing GW, I really just bought him with the hope of a profit someday. To my novice eye, he looks wonderfully carved but the setting is only pinchbeck. The seller did not note a signature and one is not apparent in the photos. It was a gamble... we'll see how he looks in real life when I get him. Fingers crossed!
(And opinions/info appreciated... even if it's bad news!)

 

He looks extremely well carved. One in the Met by Luigi Michelini is not in a frame at all; admittedly he is not on display either. He lives in a drawer in the basement.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/198594

Here are the Met's & yours compared:

 

He is wonderful! IMHO the carving is more delailed in yours than in the museum's one
"Only pinchbeck"... Pinchbeck is collectible on its own(even if not at gold price)
Great catch, @bluumz

 

I came across the Met's Michelini cameo when researching mine, trying to decide whether to place a bid. My GW looks nicer than theirs! (That's one of the reasons why I hoped he'd be a good investment.)

Thank you!

 

This one also looks like mine, though it almost appears "unfinished" in comparison. It's set in 10K. Liveauctioneers estimated $700-900 but I'm not a member of their site so I can't see what it sold for. If mine reached that estimate, I'd be dancin' in the streets!





And this one sold on rubylane for $770. It's set in 9K and still not as nicely carved as mine, IMHO.

 

Any suggestions on the age of my GW?

 

That's my opinion too & why I wanted to show them side by side. The majority of the cameos the Met owns are part of the Milton Weil collection, are hardstone, are fabulous. Mr. Weil must have bought this one out of patriotism & because it added one more work signed by a known name.

The image originated with Jean-Antoine Houdon's sculpture of Washington:



We don't know which of many sources that show the head only were used by the cameists. Both cameos are 'sinistral' facing viewer's left, medals that were struck seem mainly to be 'dextral', like this one by Pierre Simon Duvivier from 1790:



Cameo cutters may have come across the image more by way of plaster impressions of the medal or copying other cameos that were based on an impression. Italian gem engravers had to be businessmen too - some of them owned stores in addition to making their own work - & GW was probably a hit with American tourists.

This came in while I was writing,

I don't know if this thread had any influence, but applaud your doing some research first & in being open to a cameo that is not another pretty lady, in a price bracket you may not have considered before. As kyra said:

 

Well, this:



plus the depth of the frame, make me think this was once part of one of those brooches that swivel to show a cameo or other decorative thing on one side or the contents of a memento compartment on the other. With that bar across the back to hold the pin parts, it would not be able to swivel, so Bronwen Holmes deduces the current pin is a later addition. She further deduces, since the hinge & the way the pin stem is attached to it are earlier Victorian, cameo could be 1830s-40s. [Edit: And cameos are not always set right when they are first bought. The mount & the cameo are not necessarily the same age.]

There is not likely ever going to be a way to know, but I would consider it a better than even chance that the cameo itself (certainly not the setting!) was cut in France. Despite his Italian name & origins, Michelini was working in Paris by 1830. I can see GW becoming a widely reproduced cameo image there more readily than in Italy.