Featured Cameo End of Semester Pop Quiz

i voted 20th glass......but changed it to hardstone.....
looking at the pebbled nature of the black.....and the dull non reflective nature of the white.......
it's what i can see.........
Oh...& I'm not a reg on the thread...but like games and quizes..

 

I hoped it would be fun for everyone, maybe more enticing for the joolies & even more so for the cameo crowd, but we all enjoy a puzzle & all are welcome to have a go at it.

Followers of the Show & Tell thread (should) have a slight edge, but enough evidence is provided that general life experience may well suffice.

 

I looked at it and said "Victorian Revival Czech glass" right off the bat. The back says glass too; the setting isn't old enough to be Victorian. She just doesn't "smell" like stone. It's possible the cameo was reset in a newer frame, but I doubt it.

 

To me, the back screams glass and the was my first vote. Plus, there's what looks like a bubble pop (brown spot in drapey bit is most noticeable, but there are a couple of others).

But there's also a crack in the black bit (diagonal from nose to edge) that doesn't look like a glass crack to me.

And, it looks to me like she has an edge (bottom of her nose and mouth). Two separate pieces... but now that I've had time to drive around town and come back to look at her again... I think that may not be an edge so much as where the paint/dye stops.

And I'm really tempted to change my answer back to glass.

But the fact is, the answer I choose won't change one concrete fact: I don't know the correct answer.

 

You're overthinking it. Go with your gestalt.

 

Yeah, no un-ringing that bell.

 

I'm going with the glass option. And I almost never participate in polls -- but did vote in this one! My reasoning is just that, of the options given, it looks most like glass to me. Looks more molded than carved... and also, I don't want to influence the responses of others (in any direction).

 

Will leave the poll open long enough for members in more distant time zones to have a chance to participate if they would like to, & then, The Big Reveal.

If one of the choices had been 'carved into the filling of a chocolate, Oreo-type, sandwich cookie/biscuit', who would have voted for that? Can I see hands?

 

Semi-random collection of responses

 

Oh, and there is a reason that I no longer buy cameos through eBay. Has something to do with my difficulty in distinguishing materials in online images.

 

I sometimes take a chance on something I'm not sure about if it's cheap & I see something about it that makes me think it might be better than represented. About half the time it's better, the other half it's just what the seller said.

If I don't want to gamble, but the piece is still of interest, I will ask questions and/or for more photos. Most often I want to see a piece from the edge and to clarify whether the back is flat, concave, or some other shape. I may ask if a fingernail will catch around the edge where the figure meets the ground.

If I'm not sure, it's not cheap, & not that appealing, I pass it by.

 

Sounds like a good technique...

 

So I'm back overthinking. Since I'm the only one who voted Victorian hardstone, I must be wrong. Looking at how worn she is, maybe I should have voted Victorian Coral on Onyx.
Interesting that the back looks like it has been painted. I see brush strokes.

 

i regularly pop in on the cameos thread but the discussion mostly whooshes me by, plus i have a brain like a sieve. my reason: although the setting likely to be 20thC, i have no trouble thinking it could have been reset, hence my vote of victorian black and white hard stone. i would expect onyx to be shinier and more polished.

okie dokie: this is all gibberish on my part but what the heck, it is christmas

merry christmas eve!!

 

I love Oreos, I would have chosen it just for that reason

 

There are now 2 for Victorian hardstone so you don't need to reconsider for that reason.

 

Gibberish is pretty much the coin of the realm. This is just for fun; no one is going to fail the course.

 

I'm sticking with the hardstone. It was my first reaction.
I tend to come back and look from other angles. Not always a good thing.

 

I'm sticking with my second guess. Now I must go pick up a rental car and travel 5.5 hours to see my most awesome niece and her most awesome husband. I'll be doing the driving for the first bit, husband will take the second half.

You can rest assured that when we switch drivers, this is the first thread I'll check.

 

Travel safely, Jivvy!