Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

ya....young girls.....so fickle ! Har har har !!!!!!!

 

@bluumz and anyone else interested. This looks very much like another ivory cameo, different hand, from the same source as your Isabella & my pretty lady.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=245344

 

It does!
I found another one on eBay some months ago that I thought was very similar to ours. I didn't buy it but saved the photo... somewhere... in a now-dead computer.
But maybe I shared that with you? Lol, I don't remember now.

EDIT: Here's another similar:



And this one:

 

The first one here looks like a 1950s production. Second one appears to have a full name, but darned if I can read it.

 

That looks like letters I recognize in no sense making order lollll.

 

Finally found a dripstone cameo in the wild wooo. Also happy to add a Hercules and Nemean Lion to my small collection. Seller listed it as lava of course.






Missing some of his nose but what Roman statue hasn't has a bit of aging?



I don't think the pin is a replacement, so likely he's first half 20th c I'm guessing. About 1" in formerly gilt brass.

 

Best I could do on this....That second letter makes me think greek? That's probably crazy talk though.

 

Nice one, haven't seen Herk in dripstone before. And great photos. Hope you don't mind that I have copied them into my file on dripstone pieces. Based on the findings, I would say mid-20th century. Better than usual setting.

 

I was surprised at the subject too, and I don't see him often...and not at my personally set price range lol. Thanks for the date assessment! Went for material and subject over age this time.

You always have a open invitation to save and use my photos for your reference, postings, etc. You've given a lot to us in your research so I'm happy to give back when I can. Let me know if you ever need more photos.

I had obviously read your detailed dripstone article but wondered what the process looked like and found a French blog with photos of the ladder. It's a really interesting method and I'm glad to have an example!

 

I actually have the link for that blog in my notes on the topic. It was cool to get a message from someone at Sainte-Nectaire correcting my original description of the process.

 

Beautiful!! Glad they will find a home with you.

 

They are definitely the most elaborate settings I have in my collection.

 

I bought a cheap misc lot of cameos with only very blurry photos taken in the dark to go on, but thought I saw a couple interesting pieces (of course the most blurry). Pleased to find out I was right and picked up my first lava cameo and first black cameo.



Tiny 1" cameo in what looks like low carat gold with a replaced hinge. Ceres? Persephone? I'm really not sure. I thought she was carved rather well, especially for her size.





This one was blurry, in the dark, and not even stated as a locket. Not sure the material on this one. The cameo is mounted separately and the inside does a good job of looking like it's carved, but I have found a similar one here, though with different inside design. Very light weight. Tiny bits of fiber in the photo were behind the paper and glass. Gutta percha? Molded piece on actual carving? Whole thing molded?

 

The first one is certainly the right color for a lava. The main part of the black cameo is certainly molded, but dunno from what. Vulcanite would be turning brown by now, so gutta percha is as good a guess as any.

 

The grain wreathing her head identifies the lava lady as Ceres/Demeter. The locket is molded & assembled. There were various jet simulants. Vulcanite or similar is probably what this is. The grape leaves ID her as a bacchante/maenad.

 

Awesome. Thanks you two. I assumed it was a molded piece from the jump. I have a little side learning library of interesting costume cameos that I've picked up from lots where I was chiefly buying for another piece (like the lava) so she's welcome. But can't learn if it's an unknown. Appreciate y'all!

 

I see enough browning in crevices to include Vulcanite in the running. Have I mentioned lately that I hate black stuff!

 

I haul it home and pet its head and call it George. Especially if it's Berlin Iron or Georgian enamel!

 

Hahahahaha I've stayed away from it because it's as clear as mud to me what they are from the terrible photos and claims people make. I usually only get/keep the costume stuff when it shows up like this.

Bought a lovely cameo from a lady a couple weeks ago who included in the description that it's name is "Ursula" and even though it's a Flora, I feel obligated to keep calling her Ursula. Sent a message to the lady telling her Ursula was cherished and safe with me...so she sent me a picture of "Ruth" the cameo she was going to keep "even when I'm at the old folks home with my worldly possessions in a trashbag." Love it.

I will always look at some Berlin iron or Georgian enamels though, whatever their names are. (And I'll expect some names now! )

 

There are cameos of Ruth, but I don't know their names.