Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

@Woutinc What a sweet set. I wish I could see them fully.

 

Beautiful, bluumz.

 

Not my smallest, but my most populated for its size:



The coin is 1.8 cm in diameter, for our metric friends.

 

Aww! The three angels! Love the coral too

 

Incredibly crowded!
Lovely piece!

 

Well that carver said "I like a challenge"! That is ridiculous.

 

Here are my teeny ones:
Cupid: 13mm x 17mm
Pretty lady: 14mm x 18mm
Bulldog: 18mm x 18mm

As you can see, the carver forgot to finish the final background carving on the right side of the bulldog, from ear to chin.

 

My least spectacular cameo as she's just a Pretty Lady type, but I thought she was better carved than the others I've seen. She was inexpensive for 10k probably because the seller listed her with a huge brown spot on her face that turned out to be a smudge of dirt. The frame weave is damaged but apparently not noticed by anyone I've showed it to so she's a fun ring for casual wear.

 

Bluumz, these are beautiful! The carving is exquisite.

 

Wowwee! That is amazing!

 

@PepperAnna the bulldog might be "incomplete" but I think he's my favorite. Such character in a great stone with a fantastic frame! Bloodstone is such a cool looking medium. Is your middle lady Arethusa maybe...? The teeny wings on Cupid omg!

 

Thank you Mirana. I like him, too, and he is my only cameo in bloodstone. Here is another tiny one- Raphael signed by Verge on the reverse -13 x 16 mm.

 

Bloodstone is on my list for someday. As is an antique box! Did Raphael come with his? Really exquisite little carving and beautiful frame. You have such a good eye for pieces.

 

Do you know which one? I have a piece signed very flamboyantly 'Filippo' & for the longest thought the surname had been cut off, it was so crammed in, but eventually realized it was Vergé. I also have a silver ring with a tiger eye cameo of a mask-like face that says Vergé inside the band; don't know when or to whom to assign that. The cameo is Iris bearing water from the River Styx...

 

Unfortunately, no I don't. It only says Verge. I am leaning towards Antonio, but I haven't gotten a chance check the signature on my cameo with known Antonio signatures.

Your Iris cameo is stunning and it is signed! Where do you find your treasures?!! Each time you post something, I am astounded.

 

Thank you for the kind compliment. I found the bulldog last year at an auction in Delaware, US. Raphael came in the box, but unfortunately he is not the original owner. I can tell that a larger brooch was there first, due to the wear marks. I have two in their original boxes, and a couple others in "new" old boxes. I notices that English auction houses often sell these old jewelry boxes in lots of 10 or 20, so it is possible to get the antique boxes. I love them. There is something special about them.

 

Buying from auctions/auction houses that aren't run by the Bay or similar are a thing I've never done and might be dangerous to learn how to do.

I love a well designed package and these antique boxes are fantastic.

 

This was the so-far unique case of my buying something on 1st Dibs. A California jewellery establishment, offered me a reduced price (still not cheap) when replying to my question of whether the bail was removable in some way. I asked because in pix the C clasp was clearly hinged, which means the piece converts between pin & pendant. They told me the bail was fixed, which seemed very odd to me, given the quality of the piece.

Then, after I had done the deal, the woman I was corresponding with there wrote excitedly that while she was packing it up she had discovered that the bail screws out, that it looked like hinge/pin could also be unscrewed, although she was afraid to try it. And so it is: hinge with pin can be removed, clasp folds down for wear as a pendant.

First thing I did when it arrived was check for a signature. Think they were annoyed when I told them. That's OK. I paid enough. It's part of a set with earrings, which are not signed. Over time have seen some evidence that it was not the practice, when producing a group of cameos to be sold together, to sign all of them.

 

It is amazing how you think you've looked a piece over thoroughly, especially with how small they are, and still manage to find new things later.

The brooch is stunning and I love the fancy convertible findings. Those earrings are so beautiful too. So you told them it was signed AFTER you had it in your hands? Well they've only got themselves to blame.

 

Tiny treasures!
The bulldog is my fav, so interesting with unusual stone for a cameo, subject and unfinished state. The frame around him is a whip