Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

And what is going on with this one? It was listed as sardonyx (did not sell), but I've looked at bunches of other cameos identified as sardonyx and none of them have this white and tan making up the cameo part.

My first instinct is to respond, "non-natural materials", but then I think, "well, the white really does look like a thin layer of something or other..."

Buy it now price is "Approximately US $60.83" (coming from UK), if you want the URL, let me know, but it is ending soon! (My guess it will be relisted shortly after it ends, but you never know.)

 

@Jivvy

Did you know that sardonyx has a wide color range? https://www.gemselect.com/other-info/sardonyx-gems.php

 

It's not that the color is a particular color but that color is there at all (in the relief portion). Everything I've found prior has the raised portion white, white with a random bit of color, or white with color on top of the white.

I don't know if that makes it any clearer what I find "different" about this piece.

 

As @Bronwen might say, that cameo is in desperate need of a bath! There is tons of dirt in the crevices. I can't tell if there is any color on the carved part besides the cream/white. If there is, could it be applied color? And also, maybe not shell?

Thanks much for the info on the price of the other one! I'll pass on it, but do like the design.

 

It could be staining in the recessed areas,but enlarging the photo there appears to be "holes/dark spots" on the left shoulder and hair above the shoulder,the photo is a bit out of focus.

 

See, that's thing, I don't think the cream/tan color is dirt. I think it's part of the piece. Not listed as shell, but as the stone sardonyx.

Let's do it this way, in the image below, it's everything that appears blue (not black) that is bothering me:

 

Good eye, @Hollyblue . It's hard to tell what that is.

 

Why?

Why?

 

Were it not for financial & spatial limitations, I would happily collect some of the wackier modern Italian pieces I see. I have a file of 'hybrid' cameos, ones where the attributes of 2 or more figures have been combined, and another of weird cameos, a few of which have been shown in the funnies thread.

The micromosaic frame is very pretty. You would think something better could have been found for it.

 

I think the second image looks like a texture from an artificial process.

Admittedly, I cannot explain any reason for the striations of the first picture to be in an artificial product... and I have no idea if they should be there in shell.

So mostly my "why" is "takin' a stab, because there's no real penalty if I'm wrong. "

 

OMG, It's Left-Footed-Venus-Feeding-Her-Pet-Phoenix-Bee-From-The-Sands-Of-Time-While-Throwing-Gang-Signs-As-A-Feathered-Walking-Fish-Pats-Her-Ass

Or did I read it wrong?

 

I don't think so. Think the answer is

I just see grunge. It's possible it was originally left with the recesses accentuated in a way I see sometimes. Have never found anything written on the topic, but some pieces seem to have something that either is, or is similar to, the fine pumice polishing rouge partially left on. This is either all grunge or grunge collected around a grainy substance that was meant to be there.

I see shell, & not even the darker brown helmet shell that is casually known as sardonyx shell.

As it says in the little primer on the subject Holly linked us to, there is no clear delineation between cornelian/carnelian & sard. Both are the microcrystalline quartz chalcedony, just different shades of red-brown, with sard being the darker end of the range. The word onyx comes from the Latin onychus, a fingernail. So a sardonyx cameo is chalcedony that has a layer of sard, usually the background, & a layer of white, the onyx, typically the figure.

Some cameos are cut in stone that has so little color, it is known as chalcedonyx:

 

No, that captures it precisely. Picasso & Dr. Seuss walk into a cameo workshop...

 

Time to cleanse the palate.

As listed by seller:



After cleaning:




She is the 'Bridgewater' Madonna, by Raphael:

 

I was thinking shell mostly because of your microscopic photos and some of the comments you made about it after having had it in hand. I think the pattern microscopic photo of the back resembles some of the shell cameos that I've seen (although they are often very smooth, too). There are some striations in the white part of the microscopic photo of the front that just remind me of the look of a natural material. You also mentioned that the back is slightly curved, and something about the feel of it just seems right to me.

That being said, I'm no expert and it is especially hard to tell from photos. I'm much better with seeing them in person, although even then there are times it's hard to tell.

 

Sometimes the white of a helmet shell cameo is polished, but more often not. If not, then signs of the workman's tools stay visible.

The opposite. That mottled look revealed by the higher magnification indicates the organic process involved in creating the material.

 

The friend who sent it to me was collecting cameos long before I was & she had every opportunity to exam it directly. She concluded it is resin, in large part because she has ideas about how shell can & cannot look, such as the notion that a white patch might show on one side or the other but not go all the way through, as well as being convinced she has seen resin pieces that do look like they have growth lines.

I, on the other hand, do not detect anything about it that would rule out shell & have yet to see an artificial piece that would have that mottled look when magnified. Have seen artificial coral that is very good for color & even seems to have the random blackened pits you sometimes see on natural coral, but, again, never any so complexly made that there is the appearance of growth lines.

 

I would have not thought it possible that that was dirt (or dirt around something else that was meant to be there).

To be fair to the seller, I just went back and checked and the listing only says "sardonyx" -- does not specify shell or stone (and the back of the setting is closed, so...)

 

It is becoming clear to me that CAMEO is not a subject where I'm naturally inclined to do well.

 

Long before I ever dreamed I would be collecting cameos, I loved rocks & shells. Having some hands-on experience with the raw materials is helpful to me in recognizing them when cut as cameos.

What I have no confidence in is my ability to differentiate a carnelian or sard intaglio from etched glass with similar color, even with the piece in hand. Most of the time I assume glass unless there is really something that clearly says otherwise.