Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Well, there's also a page from a 1970 Gemex catalogue featuring "Hand Carved Italian Sardonyx Shell Cameos (Extra Quality Cameos)" - they also have conch and "carnelian shell."

Ponytail Girl, several Corsage Ladies, and a couple of Madonnas.

The sad part is, they are better than many of the pieces you will find on ebay.

Though the tiniest ones begin to explain the mass quantities of Hatchet Face.

 

This appears to be an earlier Headband Girl, by Ricarde of Hollywood. I've seen it called the "Melanie" cameo, purported to be a Gone With the Wind tie-in. A not-very-thorough internet search seems to indicate RofH started in 1939 and disappeared in the 1940s. Apparently they made replicas of jewelry worn in Hollywood movies of the time. Ricarde of Hollywood seems to have been a subsidiary of Hollywood Jewelry Products, Inc. (I've also seen this as a brooch.)





And this is the more commonly found Lux Soap premium "Scarlett" GWTW cameo, also by Ricarde of Hollywood:

 

As fakes go, it's quite a good one & not anachronistic. Didn't know about this one - thanks!

 

@Bronwen, I edited my post because the photos of the Melanie cameo (Headband Girl) weren't showing up for me. (Odd, they showed up in the writing/editing process but not in the final post.)

 

OMG, stunning! I'd be like a kid in a candy shop looking through that!
Thanks so much for posting the photos!

 

They were blocked for the rest of us too but knew you'd fix it.

 

It is important to determine if there are rhinestones in the setting. If so DO NOT GET IT WET!!!!! It will destroy the foil backing on the rhinestones, maybe not right away, but over time. They will go from bright and shiny to dull and black, commonly called "dead rhinestones"

If there are no rhinestones, then wash away!

 

Thank you. And that's just a selection. The bottom was too dark to get without flash, which I thought might not work well with mirrored back; it is almost all shells, some Zuni work at the edge. I gaze around in the cabinet when I need a beauty hit. I like to cluster things that are similar in color and/or form made of disparate materials, a purple shell next to a purple stone, etc. You would really be like a kid having the best birthday ever if you could open all the boxes stashed in other places. I rarely remember which cameo is in which box, so I get that experience repeatedly.

 

@i need help IMPORTANT

 

RofH designed/made the pendant necklace using a cameo element that came from West Germany, so post WWII, while GWTW came out in 1939. Is the Melanie business an Internet 'meme'?

 

Great find!

 

When I cleaned up an habille shell cameo, the 'diamond' came out while I was rinsing it in the sink. Fortunately I heard it hit, spotted it, & rescued it before it was washed down the drain. It was in a corroded metal socket; evidently it was being held in place by accumulated crud. A dab of super glue got it back in place.

 

I spent some time going through your photos trying to pick out my favorite... can't be done! Soooo many lovelies. May I come spend a weekend?

Hmmm, you've already found out more than I knew. The cameo element came from West Germany?

 

I feel like I should make a game of it. Can you find the door knob? The frog? The wentletrap? Beatrice Cenci?

Would be an incentive to clean up the living room. When can you come?

 

It took the impending visit of a friend for tea to get me to clean up my dining room table. Unfortunately, within two weeks it was again completely cluttered with vintage jewelry, textiles, cat medicine, etc, etc.
NYC in the spring sounds nice...

 

You knew all the other stuff, I was completely unaware of this company.

You know, long ago, when I was more trusting of 'information' on the Internet, I picked up what seems to be a widely held notion that Headband Girl originated in W. Germany from seller descriptions. If you Google 'west germany cameo' you'll see tons of HB Girls, along with some Ponytails, it has become generally accepted.

Wondering now whether this isn't another Internet factoid that may or may not be correct, based on the existence of many pieces of finished jewellery that are marked West Germany with no maker's name. She turns up everywhere, from cheapest of the cheap to Hattie Carnegie, so we know she was being churned out by the millions somewhere, then distributed to jewellery manufacturers. Given the number of pieces out there & the huge number of variations, I can imagine an operation devoted solely to producing her & coming up with new variations. But do we really know this operation started up in W. Germany? Or was this an extrapolation, the way this cameo becomes unsigned Hattie Carnegie because there are ones that are signed, that caught on & spread through people like me? Hmmm.

 

That gives me a little time.