Featured cameo marcasite ring

hi folks

something else i bought at the local auction

no marks at all, but pretty sure its silver (not tested)

worked out to about £6 with fees, quite a nice size

any idea if its carved, and what out of, any age ?

calling on our cameo queen

@Bronwen

any thoughts appreciated

 

It's a shell cameo all right. Age...dunno. Cute little thing.

 

That's great, thanks evey !

Usually the cameos I see are a bit drab, but liked the sharpness of this one

 

It's a step up on those nasty "pretty" girl cameos I usually see.

 

Yup, that's the ones I fricken hate !!

 

This is my second pinkie perfect cameo ring, keepin it. As they look great when they are done well

 

Helmet shell, hand carved, Italian. The figure is from a set of 12 nymphs, known as the Hours of the Day & Night of Raphael. It is generally agreed they are not by Raphael. Their origin is murky, & I have come to believe them to have been devised by Michelangelo Maestri.

Yours is a sketchy version, reversed, of the Second Hour of the Day:



The Brooklyn Museum has a print in their collections:

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/26603

The Hours in poses like this, with one or both arms raised, are not seen as often as some of the more compact compositions, probably because they don't fit well into the standard cameo oval.

Yours is very typical in quality. You only occasionally see one with more detail. This rather exuberant one is from my collection:



The sculptor Claude Michel ('Clodion') passed this one off as his own work. It was originally known as the Allegory of Astronomy, then, because another of his knockoffs was known as Day, this one became Night.

 

Well I was hoping for a good response........

But I got a MARVELLOUS one !!

Thanks bronwen, when ever I see something worth your eyes I tend to capture

I love it, and will keep

Gotta be Silver right ?

Some good age ?

 

I see no reason to think it is not silver, although, if the setting is also Italian, probably 800, not 925. Could be from 1930s. Marcasites seem to have been big then. Cameos of the Hours are still being made.