Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

That puzzled me as well.

 

Thank you so much Figtree

 

Thank you Antidiem, noted.

 

Thanks so much AJ, will do

 

Yes, I thought the same about the turned up nose and pointed chin, but felt the clasp was an older one. Thank you Marie

 

I agree with you, Marie. The cameo is of a later date than the setting. The cameo is not of a particular subject, but a pretty lady, which became very popular from the 1930s onward. The other cameo is a Bacchante, as Dory have already stated.

 

I also clean my cameos with a very soft toothbrush, tepid water, and a small drop of liquid dish detergent. I let the cameo soak for a few minutes in the tepid soapy water. The soft toothbrush will get the dirt out of the cameo grooves without too much pressure. Then I rinse the cameo with clean water and dry with a soft towel.

 

Thank you PepperAnna

 

Thanks - I will give this a try as both are quite dirty

 

You already have guidance on the cleaning. There is no problem cleaning a shell cameo itself with mild soap & tepid water. Any issues arise from the setting, particularly if the design is such that water can get trapped in it.

Always let a newly washed cameo air dry after toweling off before packing it away. You want to avoid Byne's 'disease'. The back of your lovely bacchante has some suspicious areas around the top edge you may want to give a bit of extra attention:



A museum curator would probably be aghast at these simple measures, but if you are not charged with caring for a national treasure & have no intention of bathing your cameos once a week whether they need it or not, any damage chlorinated water may do at the molecular level (& I don't know that there is any) is really a small price to pay for the pleasure of seeing the cameo as it looked when it left the cutter's hand. BTW, museum curators are big on saliva for delicate cleaning.

I concur with the observations made about the first, pretty lady, cameo, although, if it is a marriage, which it looks to be, someone got incredibly lucky in finding another shell cameo whose curvature follows the contours of the mount so well.

 

Ratsy, I haven't forgotten you. The cameo is quite a new one & I have no good resources for names of modern cutters. Interesting to see one that has an old fashioned scratched signature. It's probably fairly legible, once you know what it says!

 

Thank you, PA. The gents are starting to all look alike to me. Nice finally to have another lady, they are really so uncommon.

 

@Figtree3 Thanks for keeping the conversation going & leading Dory back to useful earlier posts.

 

The lady cameo is very nicely carved. That's my favorite of the bunch, along with the child. Here are a few more. Just let me know when you want me to stop posting pics of gents. There seem to be so many these days. The one in the blue enamel frame is a Saulini cameo. The 3/4 turned gentleman with the beard is quite beautifully carved. The last one looks like Col. Saunders to me.

 

Definitely superior work. Nothing with him to say whose hand it was?

The cameo below him is Victorian, but the gent is from another time. Think it's Galileo, although I have a nagging feeling there's another Notable Italian who looks very similar, other than Michelangelo. This is Cerbara's version:



And Cinganelli:



And Gayrard:



I have a cameo after the last one:

 

No, nothing. And there was only a single picture. Bummer

Thanks for the Galileo info. Your example is beautiful.

 

Erratum:



I knew there was someone else. As usual, was looking for something else in the Paoletti glass impressions & came across this guy: Antonio Allegri (Corregio) after medallion by Cerbera. I can differentiate these guys more by their collars & shirt buttons than by face & hair.

 

Came across this dripstone cameo plaque on Ebay today. A fairly common subject- I even have a shell cameo like it. What I found interesting was the inscription at the base - Reverchon. He is a cameist we have discussed in previous posts. Do you think that this particular subject is being attributed to him or that they made the mold from his carving?

 

I think they made the mold used for the plaque from a work of his, but doubt very much that he originated the image any more than he designed the head of Perseus I have by him. I have seen this Mary both in shell & resin.

I'm aware of another use of his work for dripstone cameos. It was in fact the first time I came across the name. You can't see it in the photos, but name is at the truncation as above.

 

Thanks for the info. Bronwen!