Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Very nice. Some lovely things get passed up because they are set in silver. Love that the pearl dangle is still there.

 

Sometimes you wonder what message cameo owners were trying to convey. The cameo on this bracelet clasp is not a bacchanalia as stated in the description, although the figures are ones that you would see in the wine god's train. Here they are honoring Priapus. Can you say ithyphallic?

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...0166/lot-04fb9f03-fd83-450e-b695-add100acce0f

 

Maybe they were growing a Penis Plant? They're a real thing apparently. Just coming up with an innocent explanation.

 

I'm having a hard time with this one. @Bronwen , does this look like celluloid or shell to you? The shoulder looks suspicious to my newbie eye but then again the back looks like shell. Any idea on age ? The hinge looks hand made for sure, but it's somewhat different

 

Good spotting. Yes, that place raises the question about the material. It can occur on shell if the cutter found the white layer too thin but finished the planned engraving, even though some of it is in the orange layer.

Is the back concave or flat?

 

BTW, this is based on an intaglio of the Archangel Gabriel. Cutter has added a grape leaf or two.

 

It's hard to tell from the photos but when I look at my shell cameos, they all have that raised curve on the side like this one, which suggests that its concave

 

Oh that is interesting! The things you know ! Would you happen to have a picture of it? ( I actually like the grape leaves because in this one, they kinda look like shamrocks and I love those)

 

I didn't quite understand this. I'm very bad at understanding things from pictures. Is this a cameo you have in your hand or something you're evaluating from photos on line? Is a photo taken from the side available? I think it's shell but I have seen frighteningly good fakes.

 

Oh I'm sorry about that. It's a cameo that is online. I only have pictures. (I was just comparing it to the ones I have in hand if that makes sense). Yep here are photos from the side

 

Go here:
https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/carc/gems/James-Tassie
and enter 13890 in the box for gem number. There are some more following that one. These are plaster casts that were made of intaglios in the collections of wealthy & important people in the 18th century. You can go back & forth between images & the text of the catalogue for them.

I do have this:



in hardstone, signed by Filippo Tignani. It makes a good pairing with my avatar.

 

I don't like it. Too flat, white figure too shiny, another place where the white runs out before relief is complete. The mount is 20th century, although still fairly old now. Looks like the cameo has been crammed into it. I reverse my provisional judgment & declare it fake.

 

Thank you! Yes, I thought that one spot looked suspicious from the start but that was the only clue for me. But hey, I am learning!

 

You are doing very well. When you look at the hair (& roses?) where it streams out behind him, you can see more of those places where the interface of the white and orange is wrong.

 

Yes I can see it now. Crazy, this sure was a tough one for me! Gotta check every detail. But hopefully this helps other people in this forum too, distinguishing between real and fake!

 

You do. As I said, the fakes are getting very good.

 

Only way to learn without spending money on the fakes. I used to, now & then, buy what I thought of as 'study cameos' if they were cheaply priced. Mainly to try to figure out the material when seller description doesn't seem right or when seller frankly admits to not knowing.

 

Is this unusual Bronwen?
I’ve not seen one without the surrounding shell.

 

That's funny, I saw this one too and was wondering the same thing! I think it looks nice though

 

Was shocked when this didn't sell for at least the opening bid of $200, then stunned when I read that it has 2 triangular diamonds & 3 others are missing. This could easily be the finest thing an exhibitor at the Antique Jewelry Show would show me to try to impress me & it would be priced in the thousands. Say that it's significantly damaged somehow, bidders pass it by.



https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gold-diamond-habille-cameo-pin-pendant-2b747698f9

This sold for $75

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gold-habille-cameo-pin-pendant-1ab41b590d

Even though seriously misdescribed, was a bit surprised that this one was passed up. I should add that auctioneer's opening bids were routinely much lower than the ones posted on the Internet, so a bidder probably could have had it for less than $100.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gold-coral-cameo-mourning-pin-pendant-31043faa77

My hope that this one would be seen equally as of little value were not realized. Others with deeper pockets than mine also paid attention to the back.

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gold-black-sardonyx-cameo-pin-4334-c-D9F4776829#



Signed by Filippo Vergé, a second generation gem engraver. Antonio, either his father or his uncle, supplied cameos to the famed jeweller Castellani.