Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I would love to see that cameo and the others at the Met. Maybe this year...

 

Me, too. I love enamel.

 

Another cameo with closed eyes. Now they are popping out of the woodwork. This one is currently on eBay. But it is ivory, so it should not even be sellable. I like it, though.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/395072560546

 

I saw this one and she screams ivory. The bay took down one of my auctions because I listed it as "bovine bone" and they said I needed to specify the bone because it couldn't be ivory..... I'm guessing they aren't familiar with what bovine means.

I think the ones y'all own are so beautiful. It is an interesting medium, though obviously I'm glad the modern stuff is banned.

 

Unusual, more likely French or English, I would think, rather than seller's description as Italian. Really good example of Schreger lines.

 

It used to be that they'd pull it if you didn't specify bovine cow bone. Now they pull it even though it's listed as bovine? Yeesh - the bots have grown even dumber. First they don't understand USA/British etc English usage that "cow" means domestic cattle unless specified otherwise. Had something of my own pulled for that reason, years ago. Now they don't understand the word they said we had to use. GOOD GRIEF. Am I glad I'm out!

 

I am glad I don't sell on eBay any more, too. Just too much of a hassle.

 

I just got this unset cameo in the mail today. An inexpensive find on eBay. I was happy to find that the writing on the reverse said Civilotti, a carver from whom I had no examples. He worked in Rome in the mid-1800s. I think the depiction of Venus is quite nice. Her body is well proportioned and her hair with the topknot is pretty. I will wash her up tomorrow and post another picture.

 

Gawgeous. First Civilotti I've seen too.

 

Thanks. I am very happy with it. I hadn't seen this depiction before. Unbelievably, there is another one almost identical to it on eBay now. I tried to see if there was a signature on the back of that one, but can't tell from the pictures provided.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/386488670752

 

When I was following the listings religiously it seemed like that: something you hadn't seen before would turn up, then so would one or two more, then they'd disappear again. I suspect in some cases a potential seller sees a listing, realizes they have something similar & decides to sell the sister.

 

Hey Gals.....a question , If u please!

All the talk about known signatures......& here you've shown many examples.... like the Civilotti.......well, I find most to be written by children !!
is it hard to sign a shell......?
are these artists... carvers supreme....but illiterate ?
Can and have some of these siggys be found out to be fakes???

 

I have been selling in that place since '96 but mostly items from collections I was no longer interested in, and the occasional thrift item. But it's such a grind, even without Bay's punishing algorithm, randomly hiding your listings, giving money back to grifters and the fee drain! I'm trying to work through the last big push of things I've accumulated in the "I'm done with this" pile, and then it's just going to be on the rare occasions I find something worth a really good amount, or sell off lot items I didn't want. I work too many hours for way more money to make it worthwhile.

Can't wait for the freshly cleaned version! She has a really sweet face and I always enjoy the carvers who give their figures diaphanous fabric. The other you found does look to share some of the same carving choices that may mean it is the same person.

Hmm, inscribing on a small concave surface that is fairly delicate might make things difficult (the shells or stones are usually mounted on the back during the carving). The carving itself is done by tools like in wood carving, or by drill bits so not the same as scratching a surface. I usually see really nice signatures when it's on the face of the carving, as a presentation surface. They probably didn't think the backs were as important.

Bronwen has a really nice example of a fraudulent signature in this thread, for Saulini. I think few rise to the price point to warrant a fake signature though. Most sellers don't seem to care to mention signatures unless it's Saulini. I've even seen a Pichler intaglio with a clear front signature not be mentioned at all, and that seemed insane to me. There was definitely a trade in fraudulent carvings and signatures in the 1800s, but for pieces passed off as ancient.

 

I picked up a cheap Party Boy for the end of the year celebrations.



No signature on this Bacchus. I enjoy that the artist took the time to round the pine cone instead of just making hatch marks. The panther seems a bit on the small...er young side.

 

Nice Bacchus. I never tire of them. Yours is well done, especially the hair and thrysus. Yummy!

 

Here is Venus, all cleaned up.

 

Another cameo I would like to share with you. Something drew her to me, even though she isn't the prettiest. She looks sad. I like her. The setting is lovely, with the tiniest amount of black enamel along the outer edge. She is dated 1862, but I haven't been able to make out the signature. I have searched a couple iterations, to no avail. I am hoping you can help me decipher it.

 

Those lips!

 

I couldn't find any evidence of one either. I don't think it's Civilotti's hand. Yours looks upward; the other looks out more directly. Same primary image, obviously.

 

Mirana covered it pretty well. The only way you might gain would be if you found an unsigned but exceptionally good cameo, then managed, in a convincing way, to put on the name of one of the engravers who produced exceptionally good cameos. In that case the false signature would enhance the market value, as signed always beats out unsigned when pieces are of comparable workmanship.

We're talking hardstone cameos here. When I was making inquiries about the authenticity of my Talani Leda, one argument that was made by experts was that Talani is not a name you would choose to forge for the purpose of boosting value.

The vast majority of shell cameos are not signed. You see them here because we hunt them. Many exquisite pieces are anonymous. Some signed pieces, such as those by Schmoll, are far from masterworks. Because the Saulini name is so well known, and because their portrait cameos are mostly so ordinary, theirs is probably the most profitable name you could add believably to a shell cameo.

One advantage of having an erratic, barely legible signature is that it is hard for someone else to replicate it. The signatures of cameo engravers vary as much in legibility & fineness of penmanship as do those of other artists. From this:



to this:



Mirana has pointed out the challenges of inscribing anything on to thin shell.