Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I have a particular interest in cameos cut in shell that give the impression of, often enough get taken for, hardstone. If you saw a photo of the cowrie shell cameo without seeing the back, you would be hard pressed to know what it was & could be forgiven for thinking it was stone. These are 2 other 'cheats':

 

This is coming up for auction, being offered as banded agate:

 

Decided it is really very well done so placed a bid. Evidently no one else felt the same. Seller photos slightly blurry; hoping to see, when it's in hand, that detail is crisper.

It is not likely to be the cutter's own composition (except what looks like it's meant to be the Bay of Naples behind them) so now have to look for the primary image. Having difficulty because I do not know who the female is.

The intimate scene would not be unusual for Venus and Cupid. The problem is, while Venus is nearly always shown partially or fully nude, she never has wings. Psyche is not generally shown completely nude but, hey, they're married so... And Psyche has wings, just not large feathered ones that are the grown up version of the ones Cupid has. Hers are traditionally more like moth wings.

In the far distance to the right is something that is either Vesuvius smoking or the sun rising. A search for Cupid and Aurora has so far not been successful. All suggestions welcome.

 

I can't help smiling every time I scroll past your wedding photos.

 

The goddess Iris is sometimes shown with feathered wings. However, if you Google, you get this:



Cupid's Arrow Iris

 

Google image search is improving. I used to get only pictures of whipped cream.

 

Google search can be so frustrating sometimes... Specially when you have No whipped cream in your fridge when, now, you NEED to have some!

 

Thank you!

Despite being divorced 17 years later, I do, too. It was a beautiful day and everything went off perfectly. My dream wedding! Lots of good memories.
As you can see, I was very much in the throes of a 1990s Victorian revival, LOL.

 

The men's jeweller Dante made a line of cufflinks, called Museum Masterpiece, using Incolay cameos made from molds taken from actual engraved gems, many of them from the Poniatowski collection & a number of them more erotic scenes. I know I've seen this before, for some reason not able to find it just now. It's something like Pan approaching a nymph.

Have you learned how to search the Tassie impressions in the Beazley Archive? If so, check out the ones starting at #5341.

Some other cuff links:



One of the wildest things I have ever seen sold was this ring, clearly featuring a single cuff link cameo. Sold for a chunk of change, too.

 

Post bath, see she forgot to wash under her arms.





I was annoyed when it seemed that none of my photos of the back were in focus. They are, or pretty close. It's that the shiny enamel of the outer shell layer is very roughed up, returning the hazy appearance. Looks as though cutter tested out his tools there.

 

I like her, too! The effect the cowrie shell gives is lovely.

 

She's meant to be a bacchante dancing while thumping a tympanon, but I see her as running along a beach at sunset.

 

... about to throw a Frisbee...

 

I've been working on that!

 

On this page http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems/tassie/default.htm you are given several ways to search. Usually you take your best shot at the name of the subject & consult the alphabetically arranged Index, which is in French & that style of script in which it is hard to tell a lower case S from a lower case F. You get used to the script & if you use it enough you learn the quirks, e.g., there are no entries for Cupid or Eros, Raspe, the compiler, calls him Amour in the Index; the letters I & J are alphabetized together as if the same letter. The explanatory text is in parallel columns of English & French.

When I really have to do some hunting, I find it easier to open the site in 2 browser windows & use 1 for the Index & 1 for the plates & text. I always have to increase image size from the default 3 to at least 4. It's an old & complicated site, a bit clunky to use until you get some practice with it.

If you have the impression number or range of numbers, you can enter in the box on the main Tassie page with the search options & be taken straight to the plate, ranges written by putting a hyphen with no space between first & last numbers.

 

Rather Picasso-esque:

 

No doubt the seller describes it as gorgeous & (mercifully) one of a kind.

 

@Jivvy, it looks like your *beloved* sausage curl lady may actually be Nell Gwyn!