Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Voodoo cameo?

 

Acupuncture! Trying to cure what ailed the person who made that setting!

 

I think I'm the opposite of you @ Brownen when it comes to cameos, as I really like the unusual materials.. the reason for buying this one is mostly for the malachite & coral..

 

Well, it's true that the bulk of my collection is either some kind of shell or some kind of stone, mainly the most common types of each, but that's what's out there. I have cameos in helmet, conch, & cowrie shell, what is sometimes mistakenly called oyster shell, as well as a couple of kinds of shell I haven't yet been able to identify. Some coral. Most of my stone cameos, other than lava, are sardonyx or other ordinary banded agate. A few are more eccentric layered stones. I have a few in bloodstone, a couple in malachite, one in turquoise, & a couple in tiger eye, including this monster:



I have one Roman agate intaglio & several Roman glass intaglios. A fair assortment of cameos in artificial materials, particularly Celluloid. Also a handful of pieces in ivory.

When it comes to stone, I particularly like pre-Victorian pieces using unusual & irregularly colored stone that take their inspiration from the patterns in the stone but they do not often come along at a price I can afford. Always on the lookout for unusual subjects. Of late I have been focusing on signed pieces.

I showed one of the malachite pieces back on page 64 of this thread. To save you from having to go back:



A number of others are sprinkled around throughout the thread. See? We're not so different.

Nice bracelet. Now you have to make a point of wearing it.

 

These are beautiful, I love the malachite one.. but I would have never guessed that you have cameos made out of artificial materials.. what attracted you to these ones?

I can't wear it.. I like it too much and I'm afraid the coral will become dull if I wear it.. Imagine me saying "my precious, my precious" with a small bag of jewelry instead of a ring..

 

Sometimes artificial ones came as part of a lot of diverse pieces. Sometimes I thought the piece was better than described & I was wrong. Some glass is just beautiful in it's own way. I was on a Celluloid jag for a while & bought boxes & bangles as well as cameos. One was a gift:



Some things I have bought as part of what I think of as my study collection, because I wanted to handle them, not just see photos.

 

I understand now, thank you for explaining it to me !
I'm with you on this one, some of them are just beautiful, indifferent of the material..

 

It's giving me pain!

 

Talking about unusual materials for cameos.. could this be amber ? I'm inclined to think so looking at the back.. but I might be wrong.. Thank you for looking !

 

I haven't seen one quite like this but there is a whole line of some sort of pressed/reconstituted/molded amber reverse intaglios out there. Fine if you like & the price is right & you want it for you. Not something people who are into cameos generally take an interest in - too close to being plastic - so limited potential for resale.

 

That's the problem, I don't know how to recognize real amber for pressed/reconstituted amber.... I didn't pay much for it and I will probably sell it.. I don't like the carving too much.. I've became pretentious about the cameo carving, see what you did to me ?

 

With malice aforethought. Not 'pretentious', discerning.

 

Give yourself to the Dark Side...

 

Another unusual one:

 

She runs screaming from the room!!!

 

I saw this & considered posting it as an example. It is somewhere between en
habillé & commesso. Sort of a bizarre effort, studding grape leaves with diamonds & going to all that work to clothe a good but not spectacular cameo.

 

I like that one. Just because it's unusual and I like the colors. The Star Wars cameo, though -- not so much. It's a little too odd for me.

 

And a little too poorly cut for me. You'd have to give it some credit if it were superb technically.

 

Did an enterprising cameo carver use a vintage setting for DV? Seems unusual to see the chased metal on a modern piece.

 

That said, you KNOW there's a Star Wars fan out there somewhere slavering over that ring.(LOL)