Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

He's STUNNING!!

 

One of the sources for info in this field is guidebooks for tourists to Rome that include where to go for what product or service. This one from 1869 is typical. You're right, it's a good word; time to bring it back.

 

I keep pulling up the photo to look at him again. I think I'm in love. But hey, he's the original prince who rescues a damsel princess in distress. What's not to love?

 

Just bought this unmounted shell cameo for 52€ with shipping!
5cm (about 2") wide.
@Bronwen you will certainly identify the subject in a blink I was thinking Iris
Pic from the seller, and the other I enhanced a bit I'll post better ones upon its arrival next week...

 

OH, Kyra, it looks Lovely!!!!!! Now will you have that framed in gold or silver??

 

Ha! Thank you Aquitaine! I think I'll wait to find an old brooch mount... It will take a long time, but I don't like modern things

 

Hi,
I thought it might have been Aurora. The goddess of the dawn of a new day.
greg

 

Greg, thanks! It does look like another Aurora I saw, waiting to have it in hand to see what she's holding in her right hand... For now I see a dead rooster that may fit in sun rise theme

 

There's some crossover in the imagery of Iris & Aurora - either one can be depicted as pouring something over the world below - but all in all your girl looks more like Aurora/Eos to me. Will be interested in having a crisper image that shows more clearly what is in her hand (flowers, I suspect), the design on her car & the look of its wheels. She does not appear to be in need of kyratisation, but don't you love the anticipation of some pretty new thing in the mail?

 

Yes, Bronwen, thank you, more Aurora probability!
Of course I’m very impatient to get it and see what she holds and all the details not shown in the low resolution pic
The only kyratisation will be to find a mount and fit it in

 

I've seen some stones set in polymer clay; if all else fails it could go that route.

This one just popped up in an Ebay group. Mourning cameo probably - check out the last page.
https://community.ebay.com/t5/Jewel...ski-Eye-Candy-Wednesday/gpm-p/28245628#M61017

 

Is there another cameo here besides the little one of Michelangelo? Looks like it says 'To' or 'For' Emily, so nothing particularly mournful about it.

Polymer clay is an interesting idea. One could certainly give a cameo a setting that closely resembled the jet ones popular at one time. Don't know what possibilities the metallic varieties offer but can imagine one might even be able to take an impression from a favorite genuine gold or silver mount. If anyone could pull this off, it's kyratango.

 

The Emily one is Michelangelo - new one on me. It looked like somebody's grandfather.

I have one of the ones set in jet, but I"m pretty sure it's a marriage; the cameo looks cut down. Bought it anyway, years ago, and strung it on glass pearls. The glass ones were the only ones I could find in the right colors.

 

HI ALL!!!!! I can't believe I just WON my FIRST Cameo at McInnis Auction that is just about to end!!!! I'm pretty excited, for me!!!!! Here she is!!!! AND, @Bronwen, I DID stay right within my budget!!!!! I'll have to see about having a loop put on at the top carefully by a GOOD jeweler, but I think she's beautiful!!!! Sorry I didn't save an image of the back but it's nice and clean, no cracks or anything! I'll get her within about a week!!!! ON pins & needles, but was holding my breath when no-one topped my bid......phew!!!

 

So pleased for you, Aquitaine! Careful, the exhilaration & dopamine high can be addictive.

A bail would have to be soldered on, & you may be told that this can only be done safely by laser, which is probably correct. Not all jewellers are equipped to do it & it can run to some money. Have had pieces come back from non-laser work & found the back of the shell coated in epoxy as a safety measure. Was not pleased. What would be nice would be a detachable fitting to make it a convertible piece & eliminate the need to solder.

 

THANK YOU!!!!! I WILL be very careful about the addiction!!!! Do you have any with detachable fittings??? Just trying to form a mental image here!! Sounds like NOT soldering WOULD be the smarter way to go!! I won't do anything without being sure of my options, that's for sure.....wouldn't want to mess it up!!!!

 

This prompted me to look at the several I have mounted in jet.

I do not really know anything about the production of the finished pieces, but have come to suspect that the jet frames were made by factories & then bought by jewellers. It would have been possible, as needed & within limits, to either enlarge the opening of the frame or pare down the edges of the cameo to get a better fit.

Two of my pieces are helmet shell & one is ivory. I do not have one of the popular pink & black pieces that use a conch shell cameo. Ivory & conch shell can both be flat, or very nearly so, on the back, so they sit well in one of these inflexible jet mounts.

Helmet shell is highly variable, from nearly flat to extremely curved. A custom made metal bezel or prong setting can easily accommodate the irregularity. The jet handles the flatter of my 2 pieces well. The other one is deeply concave on the back. Almost impossible to see what's going on behind, but looks like maybe something like Vulcanite was used to fill in the gap & keep the cameo stuck in place.

There is one spot where both the cameo & the bit of jet across from it have fine chips, as though some struggle went on there. Possible this was a retrofit, but more likely, I think, a jeweller who found a beautiful cameo turned out to be unexpectedly challenging to set.

I know, it is amazing how hard it is to find beads that work really well with cameos. I made a strand for a friend who inherited a beautiful cameo brooch from a great-aunt & wanted to be able to wear it more securely. Took her with me to the bead store, where she selected some carnelian beads. I added in pearls & some sparkly rondels (cameo has 5 little diamond accents) to pull it all together. We were lucky to find stones that went well with the color of the cameo.

 

If the pin is mounted above the center of the piece, one of the inexpensive brooch to pendant converters that slip over the pin might work just fine for you. Unfortunately, so many of them seem to have the pin mounted at the waist, & they tilt forward, even when worn as brooches. Unattractive & perilous when dangling as a pendant. I'm imagining something that would also attach primarily by slipping over the pin, but then also have some kind of a brace that would hold under the inner rim at the top to steady it, with the bail attached to it, near or at the top. Think my jeweller would understand the problem & enjoy the chance to design something for the job. You need someone who does actually make & not only sell jewellery.

The convertible pieces I have were designed that way originally, so necessary findings could be attached before the cameo was mounted. The simple ones just have the bail attached by a hinge at the top; all parts stay on, no matter how worn.

More elaborate ones have a hook hidden at the top where a bail can slide on & off. Really elaborate ones have that, but also the C clasp is hinged & folds inward while the hinge with attached pin stem unscrews.

A tiny cameo the size of a US nickel has a hinged & swiveling bail, as well as a piece attached by a screw, that holds all the brooch findings as a unit.

There's another type I see but do not have that uses a complicated-looking set up involving a cross-shaped piece. Have never quite figured out how these go together/come apart.

Much will depend on where the pin is located.

 

Bronwen, who do you think is represented in the cameo?

 

I just got an image of the back, so looks like I probably have to find a talented jeweler, from what I can see!!! And @Marko, she probably has other names, but Eos or Aurora, Goddess of Dawn or Day......