Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Yikes! Well, I'm not able to make the photo any bigger and there is no side or back view provided so... a wild guess based on a very slight pink hue which could just be my screen setting... and that it does look like a hard substance... coral?

 

Just bringing IT forward.



In case this helps anyone, here's an enlarged-but-blurry version.

 

Now I'm questioning the my "hard substance" assertion... could it actually be conch shell?

 

AAHHHhhhh, now I see a pinkish hue... Angel skin... Conch shell...

 

Great spirits meeting

 

Another idea... (dithering )... bone?

 

Hum, don't think so, I'm with you on the conch shell feeling

 

Just when I'm thinking of switching from shell to ivory.

Personally, I think the pink cast is reflected light (like the photographer was wearing a pink shirt).

But. I'm very much at the " " stage.

 

Although. Almost all of the really super high relief stuff I see that is carved-not-molded is lava stone... so now I have to wonder if lava stone can be polished to that high a sheen.

 

OMG. It's Stan Lee. It's a cameo.

IT'S A STAN LEE CAMEO.

*rim shot*

I love it when humans are this funny.

 

Okay, I've thrown three ideas into the ring: coral (angel skin), conch shell, and bone. My final answer (guess) is... conch shell.

 

Thanks for helping everyone else see what I saw when I magnified the auction listing pic.

They're not. I see pieces so described from time to time, but have never seen one I thought really was.

And if you went that route you'd then have to decided what material was molded.

It looks very much like ivory, which sometimes does have a pink tinge. Also a popular ivory subject:

When ivory seems like a possibility, bone also has to be considered, but there's no hint of any growth pattern.

Pretty good 'best'.

Not the first time your first impression was better than your analytical impression.

You're getting warmer, but what do we know about that shade of pink?

It could.

As usual, kyra zooms right in.

What you do see in lava not seen in any other material except occasionally coral, & then not to the same extent, is the cutting away of so much material that parts of the carving are semi-detached from the background Lava does afford the carver large chunks of raw material not restricted by the layered structure of shell & banded agate.

Have never seen blushing lava, and no, there's just a limit to how glossy you can make it look. Shininess is a feature that suggests to me a lava-looking piece is of the modern, reconstituted in resin & molded type.

Mine too. My initial reaction was ivory, but as soon as I enlarged the photo knew it is conch shell.

I have a feeling it is going to be seen as coral & get bid up on that basis. If you would like to follow:

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...aign=auction-alert&utm_content=lot-image-link

 

All I heard was "YOU GOT IT RIGHT BEFORE ANYONE ELSE."

 

Oh that. I dunno. Let me see if I can find the original bigger files. If they ever existed...

 

It's possible you or @kyratango can sort this with a lot less work than it will take me:

 

The world had been holding its breath.

 

I was hoping you could work you magic at improving contrast & transcribe the letters, then kyra & I can try to make sense if it.

I see maybe H. GAUTR____. S (or 5?)OREUR. PARIS. R (maybe for Rue) & bunch of letters ending with 71.

 

That was pretty much all my magic.

Here's what I see:
H / GA?TRU??? / D OREUR / PARIS / R RAM?UTEAD / 71

It's all French to me.