Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Possibly, but I don't expect any news on it for days -- if I'm lucky, by the end of the week. Expecting some news about damaged MCL... crossed fingers for "physical therapy" as recommended treatment.

 

What did you do to yourself?

 

Daily running. I am not a runner. It's something new. Well, it was.

 

Stick to speed walking: heel, toe, heel, toe...

 

I tried that, bored me to tears.

Oddly, not a problem with running. Probably because I concentrate so hard on not dying.

 

Winston Churchill said... No sports... I stick to that

 

So I really should keep my hands in my pockets at auctions but I bid on a Jewellery box and amongst other treasures are these cameos.
The brooch is curved and the surround is not hallmarked that I’ve found yet but it tests for silver although looks like it had a gold wash over it. On the frame are some marks initially thought as scratches but are not.
S/-/-M/i/- but the slashes are upright.

The pendant- is that what is known as a pinch beck surround?

The earrings are odd as one is thicker than the other. I initially thought costume but with my (very) amateur gold test on a touchstone they are more than 9ct.
I’d love any information as to dates etc.
Thanks as always

 

First piece is cut in conch shell & needs a bath. Metal is probably 800 silver. Afraid I do not know the meaning of the marks nor whether they were put there during the making or sometime later in its life.

Second piece is resin set in who knows what.

Earrings are helmet shell & just not well matched for thickness, but as long as this is not obvious when worn, no big deal. They also need a wash. Looks like figures both face the same direction, so factory just cranking them out, sending them off by the lot for setting elsewhere.

 

Thankyou Bronwen. Yes, it's all very dirty with a faint smell of mouse!.............

 

When you clean them up, maybe use a scented body wash you like instead of dish washing liquid, like I use. The conch piece will look much nicer.

 

Great idea!

 

A new, weirder, look for Ponytail Girl:

 

She's rather more elegant than mine above who look like a group of stern old girls!

 

Don't think I agree with that. To revive an old word, I find her treacly, always.

 

It looks like someone swiped their finger through the frosting.

 

@Jivvy @Figtree3 @bluumz Remember this guy?


Alexei Nikolaevich Olenin

I finally heard from Dr. Julia Kagan, as Lena, my contact at the Hermitage, had promised I would. Julia Kagan, now in her eighties, is a world famous authority on engraved gems.

Dr. Kagan is convinced the cameo is by Peter Egorovich Dobrokhotov. Only a little to be found on the Internet in English:

https://persona.rin.ru/eng/view/f/0/23816/dobrokhotov-peter-egorovich

and, if you scroll down a bit:

http://lobortas.com/en/blog/preciou...ernity-glyptics-russian-style-becoming-181018

Dr. Kagan is basing her opinion in part on the similarities between the Olenin cameo and this one of Alexander Suvorov:



Since Dobrokhotov died in 1831, think we can now say with confidence that the cameo of Olenin predates 1918.

 

Good information, and I'm glad that she replied!

 

Oh my goodness that's interesting! And how exciting to hear back from someone of such respect. Very nice.

 

wa wa waaa

but all the jewelry ones were molded plastic