Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

PS: I'm now totally wondering about a resin cameo I bought for a friend 15-20 years ago -- it was pretty, but I bought it because it was two woman and unusual (or so I thought) and perfect for her and her girlfriend (now wife).

Now I'm wondering if it was Night and Day (or some other mythical pairing of women)... which just makes it better.

Though I totally doubt she still has it because it really was a cheap thing in a cheap setting.

 

Can you say 'Quick & dirty'?

 

I don't think I've ever seen Day & Night in artificial material. Offhand, can't think of any regular glass or resin cameo subject that looks like them; maybe it will come to me. Any chance the cameo was not resin, even if the setting was cheap?

 

I would agree if the hair flowed around to form the stem or leaves of the flowers, but I guess I am a stickler. I see people calling anything with a flower or woman Art Nouveau, it makes me crazy!

 

Heaven only knows. It was an eBay purchase and I'm pretty sure I paid maybe 8-10 bucks.

All I really remember is two women, romantic (not romance, but you know, pretty in a flowery way), and the ground was a pale tan. And I think it was an oval on its side (the greatest length was the width, not height).

 

The cameo is probably late 1920s - 1930s, so post-nouveau in time period of creation, but pretty ladies had a way of lagging behind the times.

 

Maybe it was something like this, only a jugate composition (2 overlapping profiles)? Think I have seen that, know there's a version with 3 faces, but don't have an example on hand.

 

Here's another one. It's a repurposed piece of bracelet; I think someone restrung it and put glue in one hole and then couldn't restring when the elastic died as elastics do. They broke it up and made bolo slides, restrung the rest and reused the orphan, or something. I'm thinking it's jet and I'll have to find some ceramic to test it on.

 

I agree: formerly a bracelet panel in an elasticized bracelet; carved jet cameo set into a polished jet frame. It's the angularity of some of the lines and the lack of browning that make me think not Vulcanite or similar.

 

It's a nice little piece; I'm just cheesed off at whoever glued that elastic in there.

 

@evelyb30

You can probably drill out the glue using a pin vise... https://www.amazon.com/Pin-Vise-Small-Models-Jewelry/dp/B075TZ4G52 and may find one at the local hobby/craft store.

 

I'd then have to get that back off too. Since it's already been repurposed I'll just leave bad enough alone. There are however other beads with bits of things glued inside. Looking at the link I think I have a least one of those kicking around somewhere. My dad had one for working on model trains.

 

I dunno. I remember the ground being a plain tan -- made no effort to mimic shell. And I think the setting was much more... "western" -- you know, with like silver dangly bits... though, I could be making that part up.

But I have just had a very funny text exchange with my friend. And she says there is no way she got rid of the pin, but... she doesn't exactly know where it is, either.

She promises that if she finds it, she will send a pic. Her recollection is also that it's resin.

 

Thanks Bronwen, for the bezel which is obligatory in regard with the manner how it's made on the cameo, I use fine grade silver in very thin foil, about 0,3 millimeters to make it because it need a lot of adjustments before closing the cameo, a very simple flat mount with a hook eventually articulated soldered at the high part seems to be the better solution in my opinion, as you said not very desirable as it is now.

 

It certainly will.

So everyone will know what we are talking about, I took some desktop photos of several different ways a cameo can be held in its mount.

This is the classic bezel, contoured to follow the curvature of the shell:


This hybrid combination of a bezel and prongs is a solution to the problem not seen very often:





In this case the bezel is more cosmetic than functional. The bezel follows the shape of shell, disguising the gaps that would show otherwise; the prongs are doing the work of holding the cameo in place.

When the section of shell is close to being flat - this specimen was flattened a bit more by grinding the edges from the back - it can be held by prongs on a flat frame:

 

I don't know how to name the small area all around the cameo which is clearly made to contain return of the setting, not all cameos have this detail, and it's not aesthetic to fix with prongs(as you name them) when it is a special mount used previously.

 

I never see contemporary cameos set in the sort of bezel that was standard in the Victorian era. Pieces that have been set in Italy now typically use a technique similar to this, with a support behind and prongs, or parts that do the job of prongs to hold the cameo.





This one is more elaborate; many are quite spare, using a minimal amount of metal.

 

Your mention of this led me to remember a cameo that I bought at the gift shop of the Vizcaya Museum in Miami, Florida about 18-21 years ago. It's one of the type that is dyed blue. Not shell-- I think it's supposed to be agate but I've never looked into whether it really is.

Just took some photos of it. There is a signature scratched into the back, but unfortunately not scratched very deep and illegible except that the first letter appears to be a G. And I can't get a photo of the sig as it needs to have bright light shining on it at a certain angle... but also, I'll bet it's not important.

The diamond-shaped cartouche on the back has "760" and the oblong one has a small star followed by "302" and "NA."

On the lower left back you'll see some spots. Those are reflections. This thing was probably made the week before I bought it and the metal has no stains at all.

I'm mostly showing this because the setting does resemble the old bezel settings. Sorry the pic of the front is blurry. I thought it was going to come out more clear. Is that the goddess Demeter/Ceres?

 

The setting was made in Naples Italy. Beyond that...dunno. That 760 is most likely a 750 - the gold mark. The other mark identifies the goldsmith who made it and the city he/she worked in.

 

Thank you! It probably is 750, then. But looks more like a 6 in the middle.

So maybe the NA on the mark is Napoli/Naples?