Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

If I could edit it, I would tweak my post to be more specific: those are ways a shell cameo can be mounted. The great majority of hardstone cameos have tables that are flat enough not to require a bezel with any customization other than for thickness & circumference. They usually do not rise & fall. One of the things I look for in photos when trying to figure out whether a piece is carnelian-colored shell, resin or hardstone is a view from the edge that shows me whether the bezel looks saddle-shaped or level.

Your blue cameo is ultrasonically cut, dyed agate. They are making these in Germany too, but, as evelyb30 pointed out, the marks on yours are Neapolitan. I can see more than the G, but not enough to make out a name.



The figure with the cornucopia can be seen as Fortuna or Abundantia, the second being one form of the first.

 

Thank you, @Bronwen -- I was mostly wondering who she is. You did a great job with the signature. That's about how it looks to the naked eye. I did shine a bright light in it and could see many breaks in the line of the signature. Am I right in thinking that it wouldn't really matter who the artist was in this case?

I should have realized that you were referring to the settings of shell cameos in your previous comment. Oops!

 

I should have been more specific. I plead having written it at some silly hour when I should know my brain does not work well. Lecollectioneur has a particularly irregularly shaped piece he wants to set. I was just showing some of the ways jewellers have tackled the problem.

At least you know a human being did touch your cameo; it was not entirely machine made. Could be initials & a year. But no, even if you could learn the exact name, it would probably make no difference to current or future value.

 

Any thought on this scene, though hard to see on the poor thing? I've owned it for 25+ years and have wondered about the subject.

 

What a curious piece. It's lava-like, but wondering, even though it does not have the characteristic indentation on the back, if it is not one of these:

https://www.cameotimes.com/index.php/reference/materials-guide?start=4

Is the scene somehow applied to the substrate? Confess I have not seen anything quite like it before.

The scene is not ringing any bells. If we could see better what they are doing/holding, it might be possible to assign an identity to them. They could be geniuses (genii) rather than cupids; we need to see more of the detail of what's around them.

I'm fascinated. It's rare these days that I see something really different. Would need to assess it on features other than the visual to have a better idea. Where did you find it?

 

i keep seeing a postbox on the right and a mini stonehenge on the left

 

Oh whoops, I'm afraid it must be confusing photos doing the damage.

I'm 75% sure it's a glass intaglio that's been reverse painted... That number keeps going down as I continue to write this message, lol. Well, I'm 100% sure the design is on the back of/under glass.

And 100% sure the back of the pin is a corroded piece of metal.

I'll see about getting some better shots of it after the sun comes up, but the little bugger is tough to photograph.

As to where it came from, when I said I had it 25+ years, that was a typo, it should have said 35+ years. And the answer is "some antique shop, probably in Florida or north Carolina" (I wasn't a thrifter at that time.)

But I remember wearing it in grad school and that was 1981-1984.

I've always thought the building-like things were meant to depict something Greek or Roman, but I strongly prefer Stonehenge.

 

Thanks again for the examples Bronwen, I want to make as it is on your picture, to simplify as it seems by some rests of grey material it was at a time, I fill it with white plaster and make a flat base to have more security when making the bezel and when cutting the lip too.

 

Hi,
Nice photos!!!!!!!!
greg

 

Oh, my, I just saw a shell cameo with that same scene while browsing yesterday! I'll see if I can go through my history and re-find it.

 

Listing states this couple is Eliezer and Rebecca but wouldn't they usually be depicted at a well? If they are not E&R, who might they be?

 

And here's the back with metal disc removed. What you're looking at is gluey-moldy paper.

 

Nobody freak out. I've only taken it apart, it goes back together.

 

I did wonder if it was glazed.

This poor thing has got the worst of it in the battle against air & humidity. Was it already in this state when you bought it?

It was made well before that, I should think.

OK, now what I'm seeing is making sense.

LOL. I think they are meant to be little temples, in a minimalist way. But what the boys are doing...

The overall shape of the area where they are suggests a cloud, a standard way of indicating Mt. Olympus. But looks like it may be covered in roses (I'm hearing Honkytonk Woman here), so maybe a field on Olympus. I wondered if they could be playing knuckle bones, something I have seen, but couldn't reconcile what I think I see with what I would expect to see if that were the case. The fellow who is on the left looks to me like he is holding a net, so of course wondered if they were fishing.

Now that I've seen this, wondering if the cupid on the right is holding a bird in his left hand? I have the impression he is looking down in a tender way, 'impression' being the key word. So have they been out to capture a bird with a net?

I throw the floor open to all suggestions!

 

Oh yes. I mean, I live in Florida, so yeah, humidity, but it was just a crumpled little thing from the moment I laid eyes on it -- though the rust on the pin was not so severe. If I recall correctly, I paid under $1 for it.

Now that I have it apart, I'm doing some clean up on the setting. Most appears to be plate on copper, so I'm poking at the green bits, but nothing too drastic.

Beyond getting the expired glue off the glass, pretty much leaving that part alone.

May give it a new piece of paper backing -- what do you think? I can't think I'm changing the value much. (old paper still available if changing is a bad idea)

 

No, you are correct, they are not Rebecca & Eliezer, although there is a strong probability the scene is Biblical. I maintain a folder of pictures called 'Cameos to Study'. This one has been in it a long time. I perceive the scene as a virtuous woman, probably married, & an older king whose thoughts are not so virtuous. It is clearly not David & Bathsheba. Solomon was acquisitive when it came to women; still, this tableau does not fit. Another stumper. C'mon everyone, you want me to think on Sunday morning?

 

Which I never knew until I took those last pictures. I'm going to try putting the glass on some different backgrounds and see if that's enlightening.

 

I think you may as well. I wouldn't use white paper, something off-white - cream, but wouldn't worry about finding vintage paper. If you're in Florida, it will look vintage soon enough. It is never going to be worth much more than you paid for it.

The other thing that would be useful is knowing what each is doing with/holding in his free hand.

 

You need to be aware of this:

https://www.cameotimes.com/index.php/reference/byne-s-disease

You also need to be aware that the recommended government web site may be down at the moment. That happened during another shut down.