Featured Cameo lot bought on blurry pictures...

Thought y'all would like to see the result of a lot I bought cheap off of your standard extremely blurry, no details given, taken-in-the-dark Bay photos. I took nice ones though so you don't have to squint like I did.



"G" Victorian bone brooch, Faux tortoise glass headband girl, Nouveau style lady, plastic earrings, ponytail girl necklace, gutta percha (??) Bacchante locket, costume Deco ring, 1978 Wedgwood Van Dell gold fill pendant brooch, gilt sterling Gibson Girl brooch, faux scrimshaw (???) ponytail girl, brass baby photo brooch, lava cameo, Catamore gold fill brooch, gold fill locket and faux (?) scrimshaw brooch.





Bought the whole lot chiefly to get her and the Bacchante. She looks like she's set in low carat gold with a replacement hinge. 1"




I don't know the material on this one yet. The cameo is mounted separately and likely molded. I've found a similar piece here, with a different interior decoration. Gutta percha? GP cameo on an actual carving? Plastic? All molded? Curious... More photos of it and the lava cameo on the cameo thread.



Thought y'all would like to see the real deal next to the costume kind! Left is 10K with diamond on shell from my collection. Right is silver tone, plastic (idk what kind...plastics aren't my forte) and rhinestone from Uncas.



Pretty sure this is fake....right? I'm not the best with these materials.



I'm also assuming the Nouveau and Gibson girls are later than the style of their images would suggest, but not the best with costume stuff yet either. Any insight is always welcome!

 

What is the sailboat brooch like in the hand? In appearance the material looks an awful lot like ivory, but some chance it's Celluloid. Is it translucent when held up to the light? What is it like rubbed against the teeth? Goldilocks question, does it seem to you: heavy in the hand; light in the hand; about what you would expect based on appearance?

 

Definitely translucent. Front is smooth, back has texture....but the back has filing marks, which is what really threw me. Filling wouldn't be on celluloid would it? But it couldn't be bone with the lines on front? The ink lines also feather into the material. Weight...it doesn't even register on my postal scale so I would say it is what I would expect it to weigh for a 1" piece.

 

After magnifying it, I think it is ivory. With Celluloid the appearance of growth lines is very regular, long, unbroken lines running parallel to one another. These wobble around like natural ivory. And you're right, marks from chiseling or grinding are not to be expected on plastic.

 

Well shit.

It's a later looking mounting so I just assumed fake. Then I got it and all signs were pointing to natural. Whooooops.

 

Nice group, @mirana ! As a photo collector, I also like the baby/toddler photo brooch -- although I don't really collect that format, I have a couple of that sort. Does she have her arm resting on a table? or is that a book?

 

Is the sailboat one scrimshaw?

 

Kinda-sorta. It's not old enough to be the valuable stuff, but it looks like it really was inked.

Towards the end of the Ivory Era, it was often set in goldtone or gold-filled. The oval broch in the upper left is ivory too, but a LOT older. The tube hinge says 1890-ish to me. The bottom two look like gold-filled. The locket seems to be marked. The Wedgwood-looking one is Wedgwood. They made jewelery for a while. May still do for all I'd know.

 

Looks like she or he is playing with something on the table and is just holding their arm up. I don't specifically collect old photographs, but I keep getting them as tag-alongs in other things. Sandwiched in an antique book, in a lucite jewelry box with a collection of button clip ons... They're making their own collection.

What's the end of the ivory era? 1930s? It looks gold tone to me...it is very rough in construction and the gold is gloopy which is additionally why I thought it was fake.

The "G" I was curious about but don't see lines other than ones I thought were from it being cut, along with quite a few pits. Others I can find are listed as "bone" but I understand some list them that way to avoid the illegality issue.



You are right the bottom 2 are gold filled and marked for it. Not sure what era the locket is of, but I'll wear it regardless. The Wedgwood is one of Van Dell and also marked gold fill. That style of frame is so much earlier to me, but the disc is stamped for 1978 so the more you know! Wedgwood is known for sticking to an antique look forever though so it only makes sense.

I'll probably keep a decent number of these, sell a few, and send the Ponytail Girl to my young niece who just expressed an interest in getting jewelry from me for the holiday as she's started to notice what I've gifted her mother. Got to start that kid off on cameos early so she may appreciate mine later!

 

A close look at the G tells me it's acutually bone. If you look at the front you can see round holes that go in sideways. Those are where the blood vessels were. Sounds gross, but bone has to have them to stay alive. Ivory is essentially dead. No nerve endings or anything else.

 

Thank you for teaching me!

 

Yes, I see now. Thanks!

Uh oh... I have a small accidental collection or two. They really sneak in sometimes.