Featured Surprising Cameo Results

I'm starting this thread as a place to post the outcomes from completed cameo sales that surprise you, either for how much a cameo sold for or for how little it fetched.

For example, we had our eye on this cameo of Jesus in another thread because it is signed, clearly, Perotti, and the market for signed cameos has really grown. It went from £30 to £206 (about $275), sniped, with 4/10 second to go, by a 7th bidder who placed no earlier bids.




From the same seller, an unsigned cameo portrait of an unknown gentleman, a type of cameo that not long ago attracted very little interest, went from £30 to £216 (approx. $288), sniped at 6/10 of a second to go by an 8th bidder who did not bid earlier.



The quality of workmanship is comparable, neither is set, Jesus does have a significant hairline crack that could become a break. The signature accounts for the price reached by Jesus. My surprise is that the unsigned gent surpassed him, evidence that a new appreciation of cameos has been developing.

 

I watched this auction also and was surprised that the unsigned cameo went higher than the Perotti cameo. I do think that the quality of the carving is better on the unsigned cameo- I am wondering if it is a known person?

 

Agree the gent is a cut above; very alive face. I'm not great with historical personages, so he might be 'a name', but cameo portraits were the bread & butter of many, if not most, cameists - look at how many the Saulinis did - & they actively promoted the service to ordinary people. Think the odds are this is the husband of a nice bourgeois couple. Must have a sense of humor with that beard.

 

The detail of the carving is totally amazing. The unknown man even has a slight bump in his neck where his Adam's apple would have been.

 

I LOVE ❤️ the detail in both of these, but Jesus is my favorite!!!! Happy I never saw the auctions.....these could easily get addictive, but then again, I’m sure I couldn’t handle those “sniping” bids.....too much tension for me!!!!!

 

I rarely purchase through eBay auction listings anymore, I prefer BIN. That said, if there's something that is a "must have" being auctioned, I always snipe. It's the only way I won't spend over my limit. I simply enter in my max amount and wait and see what happens after auction's end. I don't go back and keep looking. Also, I figure if I entered my max amount during the auction without using an end-of-auction sniper tool, someone else is more likely to be tempted to bid over my amount during the duration of the listing.
Gixen is the free sniper tool that I use.

 

I don't snipe, I place a last moment bid manually. Like bluumz, don't bid earlier so as not to escalate bids of others. Think sniping services are being used more & more. I've even had an auction flash up that I'm the winner, then change to sorry, you lost. It's like high speed trading on the stock exchange these days.

 

It's the modeling of the little curves of the cheek, nose & neck that sets the best cutters apart from the merely competent & gives life to the figure.

Some of us know this only too well.

 

That nose and the fringe of a beard remind me of Henry David Thoreau.

 

Same fashion era but Thoreau is decidedly shaggier.



I either have read or am completely making this up that Romans shaved down to this chin beard as a sign of mourning.

 

Edgar Allen Poe would have liked this cameo bracelet. It sold for $5000 today. Take a close look there are initials on the front right side (at the end of the branch) - PWL.

 

The W & P make it look almost like a chi rho. So either P or W starts the surname. W not used in Italian. I know. William Charles Poe, Edgar's lost brother.

No doubt the price achieved was more about the quantity of gold involved. Rather a fun piece. Wonder if the bird was part of a family's arms.

 

Yes, it was listed as 18K. I liked the cameo much better than the bracelet in which it was set

 

One to watch. http://www.ebay.com/itm/114557614039
Listing up for less than a day. Already 4 bidders have placed 21 bids, taking price from .99 GBP to 138.99 GBP (187 USD). Charles Schmoll, Athena, swivel brooch missing back panel.

 

I did bid at the last moment for the cameo of the unknown gentleman but I didn’t win.
I think the cameo is of the Duke of Wellington. He died 1852 and most likely cameos were made to commemorate this. The cameo of Jesus is dated 1849.

 

I remember seeing one I thought was Wellington when I was trawling the listings the other day. He was a popular subject.

 

If you want to see some eye popping results for cameos and intaglios, check out this auction.

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/cat.../?pageSize=72&sort=PRICE_HIGHEST_FIRST&page=2

I bid on this little gem carved by Negroni, but was soundly outbid.
One of the highest priced items in the auction was this beautiful suite of cameo jewelry:



I have to start playing the lottery.....

 

On top of that there is a 26% buyer’s premium to pay. A bit steep isn’t it. I think the auction house is the biggest winner.

 

Always. The seller pays them as well.

 

They say this one was worn as an apotropaic amulet., meaning it kept away bad stuff. What, exactly, did it keep away?

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/92754279_a-gold-and-coral-roman-apotropaic-phallic-pendant