Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Yes, that is a nice surprise on the frame. You found a pretty piece.

 

Looks much better now. It's great that you rescued her!

 

Thank you everyone! Just went over her with my cheap, folding loupe for the 6th time - and found a tiny mark on the pin stem! I will have to wait until I unearth my best loupe to see what it says but I bet it will confirm my 14k test

 

Does anyone know if Bronwen is ok? She hasn't posted in a while and I am worried.

 

You probably saw that Simona posted an update in a separate thread that she is recovering and may be back soon.

 

Trying to catch up a little here. She's terribly shiny to be plaster. From the front & edge views she reminds me of this glass Mary Magdalen:



But the view of the back, with the pin mechanism affixed directly on to the material, looks like jet. The pix are too dark to tell what's really going on. She makes me really curious too. Wish I could examine her directly.

 

Maybe William Tell? That's how this one is labeled on the back:



Your cameo looks molded rather than carved; I suspect glass.

 

Just for good measure: https://cameotimes.com/index.php/profiles-1/minor-gods/three-graces

 

@PepperAnna Don't think I have your 2 ladies on my Pinterest board? Would love to add them. Top looks like Siotto & lower looks a lot like one I have by Rudolf Otto. Signatures? Probably you know, but for everyone else, the exotic lady on the right is Guercino's Circe:

 

Original painting in the Louvre? Although the angle of the head is different. Did he paint more than one version? The Louvre site wasn't playing nice, so I just have a link.
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010062363

 

No, I didn't know that. I recognized that I had seen the subject somewhere before, but I didn't know where or what the subject was. So thank you for providing the answer!

 

Thank you, Figtree. The painting is lovely.

 

@ Bronwen The full face cameo is unsigned but has an inscription and date. It is well executed.

The other is by Louis Zoellner. It is signed on the shoulder. The sitter is Catherine Gallup Reed (1821-1914), a prominent New Yorker who was very interested in education and founded a school for girls, which eventually became Reed College. She was quite learned, having been accepted into multiple scientific societies. In case you want to learn more about her, here is a link:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Gallup_Reed

Zoellner executed a medal for the 25th anniversary of her school that included her profile. The medal is now housed at the Met Museum. Her profile is distinctive and she seemed to have a penchant for lace.




Louis Zoellner was one of the best American cameo engravers of his time. His obituary in the NYT says it all.

https://www.nytimes.com/1934/11/19/...meo-artist-dies-last-of-his-line-he-long.html

 

Guercino & Domenichino both did a number of sibyls, & I keep images of Circe in the same file with them in my 'archive'. In a quick look on line, do not see that he ever painted this one more than once, but think it was printed by more than one engraver, & perhaps the copies vary in how faithful they are to the painting.

When other methods fail, screenshot:



And this is G's Christ & the Samaritan Woman:

 

Very cool! the woman is the same composition with just a few changes. I miss going to museums to see beautiful art in person!!!!

 

Another file I keep is of cameos with dates. The white border is something Siotto seems to have done routinely, but he wouldn't have been the only one.

Do you suppose this was give to Maria by a nun?

 

I need to start keeping files, too. There is so much information floating about. Just need to get my hands on it.

 

Found I had a photo of Caroline from when she was on eBay & still needed a bath, but did not have the ID of the sitter or a pic of the signature, so my Zoellner file is improved.

I had not seen the obit. Have a friend who subscribes to the NYT, so maybe can get it in full. Did you see this?

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/57999664/

She really does remind me of the piece I have by Rudolph Otto:



Think she may be the lady in the photo. Will not put the name here for privacy of living family. If she is who I think she is, she stayed in Berlin when other members of the family fled rising Nazism & committed suicide when she believed she was soon to be arrested.

 

That's the way I read the inscription.

 

Here is Louis Zoellner's obit: