Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I am wondering if she is resin, there seems to be a popped bubble on the left (from our view) shoulder. I am also iffy about the setting, it looks clunky for gold, I would want to see the mark also.

 

Abolute dream! Bronwen, your display is magical and your cameos are outstanding (as much as I thought)! Thanks for sharing!
White coral specimen is very useful to hold vertical some pieces and... is coherent with the shell cameos too

 

Yeah, how was 14kt determined?

Because she's so not lava with all her popped-bubble-no-undercuts-pushed/pressed-clifflike-mold-ness.

I'm on the Resin-In-Goldtone-Setting Train.

 

Very good, everyone. Would definitely want to know from seller how gold fineness was determined. I would probably ask if there is a visible mark I'm just not spotting in the photos.

The soft, rounded lines, fairly shiny surface & that circular pit on her right shoulder do all scream NOT LAVA! Hard to know without touching what she really is. Her big sister is 'lava glass', which is very convincing on texture & weight, revealing a glassy interior when chipped.



She's less convincing once you've seen two or more identical ones.

I know Jivvy would find this easier to pin on herself than she would most brooches. I would find it very awkward, & not just because I'm ambisinistrous.



Along with the way there are gaps between the cameo & the frame, what possibility does this raise?

 

I like the way the coral & the antlers of the Pernell Laate moose in front of it echo each other. You can just see another, smaller, moose just in front to the right of it & a smaller deer next to it on the left.

 

Ah, well. Nothing ventured... And I always learn in these cases. Really do wonder if it was patinated to that degree from the beginning or someone 'enhanced' it later on.

 

Most of the time? That gap = crappy costume. Not crap because it's costume, but crap due to it being poorly made. The rollover is broken off of the clasp into the bargain. That's a major red flag for it being costume, all on its own. Real ones are generally a lot tougher.

 

Is the size and shape of cameos calibrated to specific dimensions when cut to fit commercial setting of the time? Modern setting are usually specific sizes ,so an older piece may have been slightly different to fit a commercial setting of the time period.

 

The ill fit of cameo to frame raises questions if a "cheap" cameo was put in a 14K frame. But those prongs are pretty hefty and don't look like they've been bent, and I'm thinking the only thing on that setting that is possibly 14k is the bale, LOL.

 

Seriously doubt it. Can't see the French making this, much less admitting to it. Quality lacking in every way. But valiant attempt to find a fineness mark.

 

There is no question the cameo is molded man made material. Whether cameo & mount were made by the same company or artificial cameos were ordered in bulk by maker of finished piece, wouldn't you expect the 2 parts to fit together well? The one type of cameo where I frequently see evidence of the cameo being cut down to fit a pre-made mount is shell cameos in jet settings.

The imprecise fit bothers me less than the orientation of the pin. Jivvy is left handed; she would like it just fine. Think the vertical piece was added as a way to attach the bail. Whole piece now looks cobbled together.

 

100% agreed, right down to "maybe the bale."

 

Did you notice that the "bail" is a pin hinge with a cut off pin and added O-ring?

 

Looks like many another swiveling hinged bail to me?

 

Mostly all I caught is that I sometimes use the wrong word and now I'm busy repeating "bail pail bail pail bail pail" until all I can think is "why not 'pale bale pale bale pale bale' omg, I have got to get off this board and do some work"

I think so, too.

 

Looking on with baleful eye.

 

<- paled. in fear.