Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

There are jugate cameos of Dionysus with Ariadne or a maenad. Mercifully, they do not look like this!!

 

I’m going to have to look these up!

 

http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/record/42F7FDB0-3707-4C94-8C9B-B1B46F99EF78

 

@Figtree3 Every time I see this I think of you:



http://www.ebay.com/itm/333084858040

 

Thanks! And I recognize her. It's actress Mary Anderson (1859-1940). I found a period copy of the photo on a cabinet card by the famous Rockwood studio of NYC. It's possibly a slightly different shot but obviously the same person from the same photo session. See the fourth photo down on this page:
https://cabinetcardgallery.com/2012/03/11/theatre-actress-mary-anderson-and-a-hand-mirror/

I recognize her because I've seen many many photos of her. Now that I recall, I identified a different piece of jewelry or art in this forum that was based on a photo of her: https://www.antiquers.com/threads/i...d-painted-victorian-brooch.19938/#post-271735

That price in the eBay link is extremely ambitious. The pin seems a bit unusual but... we'll see, I guess.

EDIT: just for fun, I changed my avatar to a photo of Mary that is from my collection. I have at least 10 different photos of her.

 

For ease of comparison:

 

Thanks!

 

Sold for GBP 122/USD 160 21 bids

Antique Shell Carved Cameo Brooch / Pendant 14K Gold Woman Embracing Dove
Sold for USD 410 80 bids

 

Oh my. Do you think the new owners will be disappointed when they have them in hand, or will they even realize what they purchased?

Without seeing them side by side, I'm certain I wouldn't have known. (revised: just looked again... I'm certain I wouldn't have known about the one in gold, the other one is rather flat and I would have been concerned...)

Of course, I wouldn't have been bidding, either.

 

Just noticed this in the description of the second one:
"ready to wear."

Is that a selling point for cameos? Sounds like a description of clothing...

 

They are as alike, equally as flat, as they can be. Quality of setting is something to take into account when assessing the quality of a cameo, but, as this demonstrates, is far from any kind of guarantee & tends to bias one's judgement.

Good question. Both sellers accept returns. We'll see if one or both reappear with revised description.

Sounds like boilerplate for 'not in need of repair'. Remember once seeing a great euphemism in an auction house description, something like 'clasp deficient'.

 

Happened across this lady with an odd lizard-like hairstyle... then I thought, are those horns?

 

No, just a fancy 'do:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/resea..._object_details.aspx?objectId=460064&partId=1

She was a popular subject. I have several myself. Both of these are by Luigi Rosi:

 

I totally get that they're both flat, but without seeing them together and knowing, I just don't think I would have ascertained the flatness from the photos of the one (while it is obvious in the other).

 

Sorry - showing my own bias. It always amazes me that sellers can mistake these for shell. They are a better simulation of hardstone. Makes me wonder if they have ever handled a seashell!

 

Yes, no excuses for the people who have them in hand and want to sell them!

Although, there was a time when I did not know that cameos were made of anything other than shell or plastic -- so maybe they're just that ignorant.

 

The black/white one (onyx?) is beautiful!

 

At least, if you had had one to sell, you would have stood some chance of correctly recognizing it as plastic!

 

Thank you. Both are stone. The agate has to be treated to get a really black background layer, rather than dark brown. The one with the carnelian background is only about a third the size, so more difficult to get the same degree of detail, & may also have been treated to achieve the desired color, although not necessarily.

 

My first reaction was "her brain is showing!"