Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Unless this was carved for his mother.(LOL)

 

Someone found one of these and posted it to Reddit. A week later I saw another and knew I had to have it, even though it's costume...


She originally had dark blue or black foiled rhinestones in the settings, based on the other I saw that had a couple left.



The reason I wanted her is because she is milk Uranium glass and I thought that was rather different.



Is this a thing you've seen before in other molds? I tested the frame as a joke and it acid tested positive so is it gilt possibly? I just assumed it was bronze. She has a more distinct feature than a typical "pretty lady" so I wondered if she was a specific person, but no marks so I don't know where she was made. 30s?

 

I did not have this one on my artificial cameo radar, perhaps because she is so conspicuously glass. I didn't realize there was uranium glass that looks like milk glass. Would love to see one that was intact. Glue holding the gems obviously not the best. Despite the lone flower, I do not see her as anyone in particular. She must present well when worn.

 

Most of the costume stuff does not appeal to me but the hidden secret of this one was too fun. I don't even understand why you'd bother with the uranium if you weren't going to use it for it's green qualities?

Here's the original one I saw (after a cleaning) that still has a few rhinestones set. This person collects uranium glass so shines UV on everything and that's how they discovered it.

I like that this lady looks more mature than the typical "pretty lady." The composition looks very commemorative, but the hair looks like a modern attempt at greek/roman 'dos so....I'll assume she's non-descript unless I find a matching profile in my wanderings.

 

I've done it before, go around the house & shine a UV flashlight on everything, but your post about the milk glass prompted me to think about it again & to wonder whether I'd investigated stuff in one little cabinet. Have discovered that you can tell real from fake pearls this way: artificial will just reflect back the purple light; real pearls will absorb it & stay bright looking, maybe a little blue. The big discovery is that the turquoise in a pair of earrings pops up a bright veined blue when other stones right next to it just look dark a faintly purple. Surprised me. Does not look like howlite or glass. If I can photograph sometime, will post to jewelry forum & see what I can learn.

 

Not milk glass, custard glass I'd bet. Neiger custard glass glows under a blacklight for sure. Probably the rest of it too.

 

I thought custard glass was yellowish-greenish? This is bright white. Glass isn't as much my forte though.

I accidentally UV'd a box of costume jewelry and learned some of those pieces glow... Now you're going to make me go test my fine pieces!

 

If you have any rubies, you'll really see them pop.

 

Not mine & not intending to bid, but sure wouldn't mind if this commesso piece lived with me:

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

 

Ooooh that is STUNNING. I'm sure it would be far out of my range but it's beautiful. Thank you for sharing. I haven't seen one like this.

 

Wow, that is amazing. Can you just imagine how it would look in person?

 

The anonymous woman I have that is similar to your Isabella came apart today so I could weigh it in my hand without the mount and see the back & edges. (Mine differs from yours in that the back is covered over with a brass plate & the pin is attached to that. The 3 pieces just snap back together.) Had a look with the USB microscope. I have no doubt now that these pieces are ivory. Looks like she has been hot needled 2 or 3 times. Here's how two of those places look:



Not the smooth melted pits you would expect from plastic. Chisel scraping obvious, also not something you would see on Celluloid, etc.

 

Wow, that's helpful, thanks!
Can I see yours? (Or can you link where you may have posted it before?)

 

I don't think I ever posted it. If I did, it was easier to take new pix than to find it. Think she's pretty much a pretty lady, with a few flowers.







The colors in the pix are mostly not quite what one sees with the unaided eye. The front looks more of an even cream color, not so streaky. Pix of the back are fairly close. The metal is definitely brass, but still a bright, shiny gold color, with no verdigris. And yes, that's the price tag.

 

So interesting to look at the texture up close! Definitely helpful.

 

Picked up something I've seen before....but not quite? I'm assuming this is an Italian souvenir plaster impression of Apollo in a little display case. I've seen the plasters from the books, and cases for jewelry, but can't find another combined exactly like this. I'm sure they exist...I just can't find one.



The glass just sits above it and is completely removable. Plaster is in the book-style gold edged cardboard ring, and glued down. There's a fabric-covered paper ring filler outside of it that doesn't quite fit the whole way, but that's probably down to age.



Edge is painted black, with no number like the book-style plasters. Case is wood covered in red velvet fabric that has worn away to only the insides and a small spot on the bottom. Fabric liner on top with no store printing. Push button closure, but case doesn't completely close. (Case photos in thumbnails.)

Any ideas on age? Surely this has been seen before in everyone's vast internet travels. I had wanted to pick up a plaster impression (the whole books are out of the question haaa), and despite the smushed face and cracks, I enjoy that this one is in a little display.

 

The original is a painting by Guido Reni, sometimes, weirdly, known as Aurora's Chariot. I say weirdly because it is obviously the Chariot of the Sun driven by Apollo, encircled by the Hours. Aurora, with the Genius of Light, is leading the way, as Dawn comes before the Day.

I have seen portrait cameos in traveling cases like this, but never one of these plaster casts. I do not know offhand which of the gem engravers might have converted the painting into an intaglio, quite possibly more than one of them.

 

Thank you so much! Gives me something more to look up. I had seen a glass cameo in a similar case but that's as close as I got. Having a travel case for your plaster copy seems strange but maybe it was a short-lived market experiment. I had thought there was a small chance it was later added to the case but circumferences are impossible to get right on chance, and it doesn't appear to be lifted from the book sets, just made in the same manner.

 

The more I look at it, & add in the details that the case doesn't close all the way & the glass just lies on top, the more I think the case originally held something else, a shell portrait cameo as like as not, & this was cobbled together after something happened to the original contents & an owner made the happy discovery that this large plaster impression just about fit, although not quite.

I see only the little space that accommodates the catch when it is pushed in to release it. But the gaps between the ring & the impression is part of what makes me think it is a marriage.