Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Insults? I was pointing out facts and how she was wrong.. just like the expert was doing, no validation needed from me, apparently that was all I was after.. big assumption aimed at someone who had just joined the website, anyone else got an issue with me that is fine..

 

Grazi Davey.

 

Could this be a Wilhelm Schmidt carved opal? Seems a bit crude, but the fire in the boulder opal is beautiful.

 

Think it could well be, although every carved opal you see is tentatively attributed to him. But the way the opal & matrix are used here is certainly the work of someone who was serious about working with opal.

 

These turn up on the market as Aurora, but it seems clear to me that Schmidt knew it was Iris, sort of a pun using an iridescent stone.

 

I agree. He seemed to favor this subject, repeating it multiple times. They all take inspiration from a painting by Guy Head. Thanks for posting these, I had seen the first three, but not the last one.

I find it hard to think that Iris and Aurora could be confused. This painting is also by Guy Head.

 

Suspiciously like the lead figure in this well known fresco by Guido Reni:



I have a couple of cameos like her:

 

You are correct. I read somewhere that he also copied others' artwork, and he certainly did with Aurora. I also have a cameo of Aurora and small, unframed cameo of Iris. I like how your second cameo has a little putti.

 

I think he's the Genius of Light moved forward from his place in the fresco over the horses.

 

Hello. I hope I'm posting this in the right place.
I found the forum while searching for another piece of jewellery but stumbled on to this thread and got a bit sucked in by all the lovely cameo's. I thought I'd post a pic of my one that I inherited from my Gran. I believe she inherited it from either her mother or her Gran. My Gran was born in 1914 and passed in 1994 so it would have come to her sometime before 1949 as that was when her own mother passed and her own Gran's passing was around 1930.

I don't know anything about cameo's (or jewellery in general, to be honest) but wondered if there was anything to know about this one. The little mark on the back says 1/20 12k G.F and there is a little upsidedown triangle with a W inside it. I'm guessing the GF means it's gold filled but that's about the limit of what I know.

It's peach coloured on the bak and is a bit translucent with the light shines through it.

It has lain in a box for the best part of 25 years so it could do with a bit of a clean

Anyway, just wanted to share

 

Welcome, Boo. Your cameo is hand cut in helmet shell. Pretty ladies of this type do not represent anyone in particular. This one is probably from the 1930s; this look was very popular then. The cameo would have been cut in Italy & set elsewhere. You are correct that '1/20 12K GF' means it is gold filled. A nice to have handed down to you & for you to hand on someday.

 

After a year of my body making me acutely aware of my three score years and ten, finally a little end of the year treat, first new acquisition in quite a while.

These little figures are not cupids or putti, they are geniuses (genii) representing Hades/Pluto (bident), Victory (palm frond), & Fame (trumpet) escorting a hero (helmet?) in a cockle boat across what I presume to be the River Styx to Elysium.



I didn't photograph the back. It has a C clasp, now rather squashed & a T hinge. Think the pin stem has been replaced with a stronger steel one, possibly shorter than the original, as it does not stick out past the frame. There is an attachment point for a guard chain, but it did not come with one.

Contrary to most shell cameos, the brown background layer has not been polished, so has a matte, almost velvety finish, while the white scene has been buffed to a medium gloss.

 

good for you....it's stupendous ..!

 

Thank you.

It really is quite unusual & I think from fairly early in the period when shell was becoming a cheaper, easier to work, material than hardstone, but they were still trying to make it look as much like sardonyx as possible.

Have not seen this composition before. It is more like the ivory carvings of people such as Duquesnoy than anything seen regularly in the repertoire of shell cutters. It is quite curved, so a challenge for my meager photographic skills. You need to have it in hand to fully appreciate the mastery behind it.

 

Very interesting! It's a lovely cameo, too.

 

[Wrote this hours ago; just discovered never posted.]

How it looked when I bought it:

 

Wonder if that's most prevalent in seller's from certain places.

One I sometimes look for is 'corral', in place of coral. Seems to be mainly sellers of NA work who make this slip, but also:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/394356640252

 

"large angels skin corral" -- Yikes!