Featured Cameo with pearls and black agate?

Omgoodness, stunning! So jelly!!!

 

Speaking of pesky hands, this is for sale with a bracelet right now on eboo. Looks not too bad - except for the hands

 

dunno, to me, the face looks as pesky as the hands on that one!
The lyre looks to weigh a ton, I see nothing carved delicately beyond the flower on the left!

@Bronwen , is the cut part on the edge of the one above - purposefully trimmed on the right edge just below the angel's wings? Or is that a chip?

 

Hard to be sure from the one photo what's going on with this one, but now that you've drawn my attention to it, the edge visible between 1 & 2 o'clock looks unusually thick for a shell cameo & makes me wonder if this is resin wedged into a vintage frame. You do see thicker pieces of shell from time to time. However, if I were considering purchasing this, I would want more photos & might ask whether the back was flat or concave.

The place around 3 o'clock could be a chip, could be a lighting artifact; it would not be deliberate.

 

Thanks, the small rub wear (?) at high noon was what made me begin to scan the edges for wear. The wear or the cut on the edges of this one seems uneven, but it's not the cameo at hand.. It's the reason I wondered if it could be a replacement cameo..

 

Bronwen, do you see how the surround of the setting on four toes cameo girl is uneven also? idk?

 

Especially from the side view. It looks not quite oval to me. Maybe just the camera angle? not sure.

 

I brought the photo over for easier reference.

Wasn't sure from the first post just what you meant by 'uneven'. If your concern is that it is not a perfect oval, I see what you mean, but it does not bother me or make me suspect this cameo is a replacement. The bezel, custom made, has to follow the contours of the cameo itself, which, having been shaped by hand, is unlikely to be perfect. Not sure I am addressing what you are seeing?

 

Yes this is it, and thank you for bringing the photo over. To my eye, the cameo has no age wear on it, stands very high up from the setting and is unevenly set in the bezel, as though it could be a replacement -- well that's what I continue to see and what I was asking. Makes total sense that the bezel must follow the contours of the cameo itself, of course. Just something about the face of this cameo being so unworn and new looking, by comparison to the half pearls being so worn an area! I have one coral cameo ring from my grandmother or great grandmother but it is so very worn on the surface that the features of the lady's head have become indistinct through the years. Granted, a ring takes more abuse than a pendant. I cannot resolve the lack of wear and the modernistic looking 4-toed carved lady figure on marshmellow ice-cube clouds in my mind as antique.

To my way of thinking, this looks more like a hodge podge of a pendant made from an older piece of onyx with diamond that someone discarded likely due to the poorly cut edge, and the cameo (a replacement or a fantasy?) not carved by an Italian maker. Bronwen, have you ever seen cameo carved "reproductions" (for lack of a better term) imported into the United States or Europe from China or Indonesia or from other foreign countries?

 

Sounds to me as though the coral cameo ring was left on when washing hands or dishes. Damage to the frame without damage to the cameo is pretty common. I can't think of when I have ever seen a helmet shell cameo with conspicuous signs of scraping or erosion. Most common are cracks in the background layer, which do not require trauma to develop. Have seen worn down coral & conch shell pieces, again, probably due to repeated washing. As you note, a pendant does not come in for the same wear & tear that a ring might. Even brooches are more vulnerable since they may get dropped while pinning on or fall off while being worn.

Yes, but unable to lay hands on any photo examples at the moment. Often the eyes look Asian, even though the rest is copied pretty faithfully.

These are Chinese resin copies of some well known subjects:

 

Thanks, I didn't realize they were so durable. Mine may have been worn down before I received it after my grandmother died. It may have belonged to my great grandmother to start with, and I may have worn it down even farther as a young woman! I sure wore it a lot..

Even ignoring the fact of the resin, these look so very modern to my eyes. Thank you so much for explaining more about cameos to me, Bronwen.