Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

It's another of those mind bogglers. The metal is not marked, but seller's assertion that it is gold may be correct. Why in the world waste gold on this? Is it a replacement? We cannot know anything other than that seller, who is not someone selling Aunt Tillie's precious cameo, must never have met a seashell.

 

Neither go to the sea side, perhaps...

 

But they do sell seashells. (Tongue twister in English: she sells seashells...)

 

It needs to be cleaned!

 

I found the original listing... “Vintage piece w/ patina and original finish preserved. The shell has a small crack (very hardly noticeable). Excellent overall condition!”

... o..k....

 

Don't you know all that grunge guarantees it's a valuable antique? Not.

 

Someone's in trouble!

 

Yeah, the classical gesture that means Go to your room, Right now!

 

WARNING! DENTITION AHEAD.

 

Something about the toothy ones doesn't work for me!

 

It just seems always to be a bad idea. This one a bit less creepy than some others.

 

I have just one Cameo, but I like it so much

What do you mean about it ?

(gold and diamond)

 

Is she hardstone (pietra dura, agate)? She looks like it, but sometimes shell can do a good imitation. This is more modern than the ones I collect, you know by the hair style of the woman. I rarely see cameos that are truly fine jewellery from after the 1930s, as this is. Is anything engraved on the back.

I have only one seriously fancy setting:



I hate having to pay for settings when all I want is the cameo. I wear this one sometimes, when I need to come off as someone who knows cameos.

 

I don't know if it's hardstone or shell.
How to know ?

That's the other side of my cameo

 

A hardstone cameo is almost always flat on the back & will feel glassy against your teeth. If this were shell, it would have to be helmet shell, & that almost always is concave, even if only a little, on the back. Also, shell, when you look with a good magnifier, will show growth lines. From the photo of the back, your cameo looks like stone to me. It is a quality piece.

This cameo is shell, but it looks very much like stone:



The clasp of your brooch has been replaced, probably to one that is more secure. It is not quite in line with the hinge, so the pin had to be bent a small amount. This is not uncommon.

 

wow, thanks for all these informations, it's impressive

 

Pretty setting and worthy of re-use, but...

 

Bacchantestein!

 

I was thinking Pinhead.