Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

If you go back to page one of this saga, post #13, I expatiate on the qualities I & most people who are serious about cameos look for. Quality of carving is definitely top of the bill: basically, you're acquiring a little relief sculpture when you buy a cameo.

In case no one had noticed, my own tastes are somewhat eccentric & I would rather have a good example of an unusual subject in a humble mount or not set at all than a well cut cameo in a lavish setting if the subject is humdrum. It was subjects that drew me to cameos in the first place. Materials also interest me.

Newest member of my cameo family is this guy:



The setting is brass/pinchbeck, with an iron replacement pin stem, which you can see has not done well with time & humidity, & he's pretty small, about 15mm (cameo alone). But he's a specimen of a type of cameo I have come to recognize is distinctive from other shell cameos in both material & subject matter. They are cut from some species of clam or other bivalve shell, & nearly all I have ever seen feature men that were probably seen as Moors or blackamoors in their day, the early 19th century. I showed one of his fellows in post #14 on a thread started by kyratango:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/cameo-for-bronwen-opinion.21492/#post-290366

I like him better than the insipid cameos I sometimes see that are cut in amethyst or citrine & housed in fancy surrounds. Some very high end operations haven't a clue:

https://www.peterszuhay.com/ads/cameo-of-st-paul/

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21557/lot/40/

http://www.sothebys.com/es/auctions...an-eye-for-opulence-art-of-the-ottoman-empire

 

So to speak, this interesting fellow was your Valentine?

 

@Bronwen, I bet this one could drive your attention... I love those butts

But... I doubt they are Romulus and Remus, nearly have the faces of little fauns sans hooves

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-9C...h-Of-Romulus-And-Remus-With-Wolf/292933911637

 

I thought Bronwen preferred inebriated toddlers?

 

I love this!

 

Guess I just have a 'thing' for red faced men. I wear this guy all the time:



He's from around the same time, very late 18th - early 19th century.

 

I think cutter did have Romulus & Remus in mind, maybe imagining what the she-wolf did with the twins when it was time to teach them to eat man-food. With those Mr. Spock ears & snubby noses, definitely look more like fauns or baby sileni. It's Italian, 1920s - 30s.

If the she-wolf takes them to a grape vine next, they're my kind of kids.

 

Got this today at a jumble sale, it was attached to a 60s shear lamb jacket lapel. I wasn't particularly interested in the jacket as it was too small for me but thought the cameo alone was well worth the £3 the person asked for. Think it may be 800 silver although the pin and clasp isn't and was green in areas and may have been put on later. She certainly looked a lot better after a clean up. Do you think she is a 60s girl? 1and a half inches long, 1inch wide. Thanks Bronwen.
~

 

A bit earlier, I think, late 40s - 50s. And you are probably right about its being 800 silver. These ones with the marcasites can be quite glittery with just a little cleaning.

 

Thanks Bronwen, it was nice to find a piece that is a bit better than the others I have. This thread has helped me judge carvings better too and I have an new interest in cameos now.

 

She is pretty, isn't she? I usually favor pieces from the late 1800's, but she piqued my interest.

 

Here is my latest acquisition.. I've been looking for so long for a "anything" lava cameo and finally I got it.. it's missing the security chain and it's a little bit dirty, but who cares ??

 

Very interesting piece: in one way quite common; in another, unusual. You may already know, but for others who follow this thread, it is a Days of the Week bracelet:

https://www.cameotimes.com/index.php/profiles-1/allegorical/days-of-the-week

They are pretty common, the majority in helmet shell. Lava ones are less common, and most of those are like the one shown at the link, busts of the figures only. I'm not absolutely sure whether or not I have seen a lava one before that uses the Raphael figures in chariots. Thanks for showing us!

 

@Bronwen thank you for the link, it's very interesting and I've bookmarked it for study and future references..

 

Is the white one, one of your dancing ladies?

 

Oh, thanks so much for remembering! No, I'm afraid she is sort of a pseudo-Hour. The gang of 12 have attributes that relate to time/time of day, no musical instruments. The search continues.

 

I found a nice bacchante today in a really lousy setting, but resisted.

 

The beginning of wisdom.

 

Only the beginning. You shouldn't see what's here already!

 

What might this cameo be made of? Is it plastic?