Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Just a little eye candy. It is quite lovely. This is currently in its last hour on auction at Shopgoodwill.com. It is 18K gold, diamonds and rubies. Currently at $3889.00. I wonder what the winner will pay?

https://shopgoodwill.com/item/154338862

 

The winning bid was $6000.99!!

 

Is it just me, or does the black & white cameo itself look like glass rather than like sardonyx, as it is represented to be? Quite a piece nevertheless.

 

could be just the photo....the white is hot from the lights...but does look glassy..

 

Wow... and here's me thinking it looks like costume jewelry (from the front, at least).

 

I also thought it looked like glass. From the other pictures it looks like it was applied to the base, not carved from a single piece.

 

Surprised there is no mention of any French marks. This is their strong suit.

 

I've been doing some research on Georg(e) Bissinger, but really haven't found very much information and very few pictures of his cameos.

Here is the standard info I have found:
"Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Johan Georg Bissinger moved to Paris to set up his own workshop. He sold a portrait cameo to the Empress Eugénie in 1867, and proceeded to be very successful, winning a gold medal in the Paris Salon in 1877. He further exhibited at the Weltaustelling in Vienna in 1873, the Philadelphia Exhibition in 1876, and most importantly the Exposition Universelle in 1878, where he won both a gold and a silver medal. He retired from engraving soon after 1883. Bissinger's most celebrated works included portraits of living and historical monarchs, most importantly Elizabeth I and Marie de Medici. Bissinger generally signed his works in cursive on the back, and many of his works are set in jewelled mounts from English workshops."
"In Bissinger’s display at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1878, he presented 112 gems, many taking their inspiration from Renaissiance cameos, coins and medallions from the Cabinet des Médailles. It is almost certain that Bissinger copied this likeness of Maria de Medici from a seventeenth century bronze medal created by Guillaume Dupré (1576-1643), an example of which can be found at the Detroit Institute of Arts (Accession No.: 79.43)."

I have found several of his cameos at museums and sold through auction houses, but not many. I know he carved several Marie d Medici cameos, one of his father in law, and one of George Washington. He seems to have worked exclusively in stone. Does anyone know more about him or own one of his cameos?

 

Hi guys,
This cameo resin brooch with red rhinestones looks to me Czechoslovakian from the 1960s. What do you think?

 

Can we please see the back?

 

Marie Forjan, here it is

 

Just been sorting through mom's old jewellery and re-discovered this. She bought it from a flea market in the 70's, I'd always assumed it was costume/plastic and she wore it quite a lot at the time. First time I've handled it in decades and it's a 9ct or 10ct gold mount and the cameo appears to be marble, pretty sure it has been carved as it wouldn't seem technically possible to mould/cast it with the undercuts and there are flaw lines/veins in the material. Hinge and catch look like they are replacements so not reliable for dating. Any thoughts on age/location?

 

The impressed pattern in the back of the mount makes me think it is newer than 1960s. But I could be wrong -- wait for somebody with more expertise.

 

Definitely Czech, but earlier, I think, than 60s, more like 30s.

 

She's exquisite! An especially fine bacchante carved in white lava. These chip easily & as you can see from the back, can even fissure a bit from dryness. Maybe you had better send her to me for safekeeping. I like your mom's taste. Anyone wearing her should be sure to make use of that guard chain.

 

Ages ago there was a discussion in this thread about whether a cameo was marble or not.

I asked the two questions in the first line below. The rest was written by @Bronwen .
↑
Could it be marble? Is marble a hardstone?
No & no. Although I sometimes see them described that way, I have never seen a cameo for jewellery that I believed was marble. Marble is used in the next thing to a cameo, relief sculptures. You'll see wall decorations that are framed marble reliefs. Marble is actually a relatively soft & fragile stone. When I was arranging the shipment of things

This link should go to the right spot. I hope~
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/cameos-show-tell-or-ask-answer.23493/page-67#post-560335

Scroll down a couple of comments to see it.

 

And, I didn't see Bronwen's latest reply until I posted!

 

See, I knew somebody would know more.

 

Many thanks, I had kind of dismissed lava as it seemed too fine grained and I was also getting quartz readings on the tester (common in marble). So we are mid-ish 19th century date wise then?

It is in remarkably good condition considering she wore it regularly for about 20 years. Can't quite remember what she paid as I was in my early teens and being dragged around yet another market, but not likely more than £1 or £2.

 

'Lava' as used in the cameo realm is not the pumice-y stuff we tend to associate with that word. Although varying, all of it is finer grain than that. This is solidified ash from the eruptions of Vesuvius. The smaller the grains of dust, the farther the wind could carry them away before they settled out.

The part of Italy that includes the volcano sits on a shield of limestone, so I would expect that a fair bit of this gets blasted out in a pyroclastic event. Some people test for lava by dropping lemon juice or vinegar on it to see if it bubbles, revealing its calcium carbonate nature.

Since marble is metamorphic limestone, surprised it would test as quartz, unless that mineral occurs as inclusions, perhaps in fossil material.