Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

I picked up a cheap Pope. Looks like Pope Pius IX based off of an 1867 medallion. Unsigned.





Not sure if I want to keep this one, but he was inexpensive and I am interested in historical/real people cameos so I went ahead and took him home.


I also got my local library to help me track down the catalog for the
“The Tannenbaum Collection of Miniatures Exhibition May 22-June 27, 1982, The Norton Gallery & School of Art By Bruce Weber, Norton Gallery and School of Art." It is entirely miniatures, except for a single cameo, teased at (but not seen) in a Google Books snippet. This is the only female cameo I've yet seen from John Crookshanks King. It is unidentified but listed as "Size 1 3/8” x 1.5” “Signed and dated on reverse: J. C. King, Boston, June 12, 1847"



This is also the first time I've seen a right-facing carving from him. All the others I have images of are left-facing.

There is a listing in a family document (“The Descendants of Hugh Amory”) of another female portrait done by King of Mehetable Sullivan (aka Mrs. Jonathan Amory), that may have been done in 1847 as that was her death year, but she was 75 at the time of her passing and paintings of her do not look like this one.

 

A new acquisition. I know there is a crack in it, but the cameo is so lovely and the setting is gorgeous so I had to have it! I'm thinking of taking it to a jeweler to see if they can tell me what the stones are so I can decide if I replace the two missing stones.

I'm guessing this is supposed to be a portrait of a real person because I don't see any symbolism to suggest it is a well-known figure/god. What do you think?

 

Gorgeous Veronica! I'd have had that too

 

I remember this one! I think you got a decent deal on the lot. I thought she had a unique frame. She may be based on a bust? Sometimes they're based on Roman sculptures, just as they get based on paintings. She has lovely hair and cleaned up nicely.

If her frame is gold you shouldn't have a problem getting a repair. If it's gold fill you might have trouble finding a jeweler who will take it on. Definitely worth looking into if you think you'd like to wear it.

 

I was wondering if anyone else in this group would recognize her from the recent auction! The bracelet she came with is much nicer in person than in the photos.

 

This is a great example of how cameo subjects can mutate over time:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/334942513475



Despite the seller's description, it is Cupid & Psyche out for a run with the horses, not Aurora & some nameless cherub. However,

https://cameotimes.com/index.php/profiles-1/allegorical/peace-halting-horses

 

That second one is gorgeous!!!!!

 

That one is in a museum (Birmingham if I remember) who describe it as possibly Phaeton. It found its way into a book on Victorian jewellery, where it is described as being Phaeton, with no qualification.

 

On a whim I Googled "MET Cameo" and got this page:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Cameo_Appearances

I downloaded the PDF, serious eye candy there!

Sorry if this has already been posted, I don't remember seeing it

 

Lovely cameo! I saw that one, too, while scrolling through auctions. Glad you got her. That setting is killer.

 

Think I've mentioned its availability in hard copy, forgetting they had made it open access on line. It was the museum bulletin issued when there was a special exhibition of cameos. The curator who put together exhibition & bulletin is someone I miss very much.

 

He had such a long tenure, there are many cameos of him floating around. James Draper, the Met curator who assembled Cameo Appearances, had a thing for Papa Pio Nono & collected medallions, etc., of him.

 

Just got a new pet, phiolosphor - Plato, made of lava. This type of octagonal cameo seems to be commonly found in bracelets featuring a set of cameos themed Greek gods or historical figures. Unfortunately, I'm unsure of its production date. Could it be from the 19th century?

 

Is there any undercutting? Can you catch a fingernail anywhere around the edge of the figure? My immediate impression is that it is molded. The way the color seems rubbed away from the high point of the cheek also suggests a more manufactured piece. On the other hand, it is not identical to the green one, so that's a good sign.

 

Thank you for your observations. I've examined the piece closely. I believe there might be a slight indication of undercutting. My understanding of undercutting is that it typically occurs with a large background, allowing for efficient removal of big pieces using a sew. However, I'm not sure if the background is large enough and worth applying the sew.

Some other features maybe help to identify.

• The carving details? I'm not sure which part to focus on other than the undercutting or identical mold.
• The thickness of this cameo (background) is less than 2mm, which seems uncommon for lava.
• And there is a shell-like fracture surface on the edge of its back, so it is a manufactured piece. The difference between agate and glass can be distinguished through the fracture surface; the former is usually uneven, while the latter is shell-like. This difference arises from their different crystalline nature, which may also apply to lava and artificial lava.

 

Some sort of resin, maybe? It's not glass and doesn't really look like stone.

 

Your observations are all spot on. I'm using 'undercutting' to mean any place that is separated from background or from other elements such that it would make it very difficult to remove a piece intact from a rigid mold. This can be added with some hand finishing, but the absence is a feature suggestive of a molded piece. The real diagnostic of a molded piece is another piece identical to it in every last detail.

Weird thing is, these all have the smooth contours of a molded piece, but, while they clearly derive from the same primary image, no 2 are identical.



The top 2 could be from the same mold with individual hand finishing touches. The bottom 2 look more related to each other than to the top 2 but still have many differences between them.

There is much I would like to know about the lava cameo industry. I assume it would have been a factory secret when a way was figured out to manufacture them through molding. The process may have been similar to that of 'dripstone' cameos, adding material in layers.

Although the Clements' book Cameos Classical to Costume is a riot of misinformation, I trust them when they say Scognamiglio has a material called 'lavastone' that mimics lava, inspired by Wedgwood jasper ware.

I think could be, but very late, or early 20th.

 

Thank you for Bronwen's detailed observations and explanations! Your insights have greatly benefited me, providing a deeper understanding of undercutting.

The two blurry items at the top seems to bear some resemblance to the situation Jeremy Warren mentioned in "Medieval and Renaissance Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum, Volume 3" regarding bronze plaquettes. Because the themes were highly popular at the time, many casts were made, some of which were replicated directly from casts rather than from the possibly original carved pieces. As a result, they become increasingly blurry, with fewer and fewer details.

 

It feels very cold to the touch, unlike resin. It should be similar to the material Bronwen mentioned, like Wedgwood jasper ware.

 

Hi, I’m so happy I found this forum ! I’m from Belgium and I just started to collect cameos, in fact I’m waiting to receive my first two purchases

Meanwhile I wanted to ask some advice about this cameo I’m hesitating to buy. It’s not at all what I would usually like but I find it very intriguing and well made in a primitive way...I know the mount is victorian but what do you think of the cameo ? Is it shell (back looks flat ) ? Am I delusional ?