Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

That is one gorgeous piece. Congratulations!

 

Haven't bought any cameos for awhile. I had to rescue her from a guy dealer that had all his jewelry jumbled together. 800 silver, missing a marcasite, pendant/brooch. I liked all the jewelry she had on, and I thought she was pretty.

 

Thank you. Was actually able to read it with a lot of squinting. My friend with a subscription is going to get it as a file I can add to my other Zoellner material.

The obit does not mention the other side of him:

https://books.google.com/books?id=0...XjAP#v=onepage&q=Louis Zoellner cameo&f=false

 

Think we decided at some point that those marcasite encircled frames were a thing in the 30s. Glad you saved her.

 

Yes, I have seen that, too. I downloaded it and attached it here for others to see. And above I have attached his obit.

 

I know, it is a bit hard to read unless you enlarge. I tried to download it, but the single page was completely unreadable.

 

I like cameos with marcasites around them.

 

I knew Zoellner was in lighting and worked in that field for 20 years, but I didn't know that he was the president and how he felt about lighting. Very interesting.

 

Here is a link to that Zoellner obit. Hopefully this will work.

https://www.nytimes.com/1934/11/19/...0Bas120Ty4LrIhEk4nMtjsZrcaX84k&smid=url-share

 

More portrait cameos- here are two I got recently. Auctioneer listed them as possibly Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, but I don't think so. They don't look like other Victoria and Alert cameos I have seen.

Both are set in gold and both are in frames. Both were filthy. I have cleaned up the male portrait somewhat but it a slow process due to the frame. The male portrait is in a blue velvet frame that has been handled so much that the nap has worn off in areas. It is also signed "Saulini, F." on the right side.

The female cameo is in a wood frame and under glass. There is a lot of dirt on the inside of the glass and I haven't tried to open the frame as it is nailed together. I did clean up the close up image electronically. The back of the female cameo is inscribed with a capital H.

 

They're both wearing their hair in styles made popular by the Queen & Prince, but definitely not her & as you say, probably not him either.

Not surprised the gent's a Saulini. There gets to be a sameness about them after a while.

Have never seen that etched H before.

How do cameos get so filthy, even in a sealed frame?

 

I have no idea. The glass was dirty on the outside and is worse on the inside. The gent was really dirty, too, with boogers and earwax. As my Mom would say "you can grow carrots behind those ears".

 

Thanks for this link. It's interesting, and was easier for me to read than the other.

 

Yes, I agree. What does the group think about the signature? To me, that means from the Saulini workshop, meaning it can't be attributed to Luigi or Tommaso. But I have seen a museum list a cameo as by Tommaso with only the Saulini F signature.

 

This is the BH Kenney cameo. Benjamin Kinney (1821-1888) was a gravestone cutter and sculptor. Originally from Vermont, he and his brother, Charles, moved to Worcester MA and set up shop. He became a prominent citizen. More info about him can be found on the Worcester Museum FB page.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10157463813741299&id=56993781298

The museum published a book about BH Kinney, which I purchased. Just waiting for it to arrive.

 

Another gent. Carved by John Crookshanks (or Cruikshanks) King (1806-1882), no 266, Feb 1 1859. King was a sculptor in Boston, MA.

 

A Tommaso Saulini cameo of Gould Weston, dated 1861, unmounted and in its original box.

Gould Read Weston was born in 1823 and was career Britsh officer. He helped to quell the Indian mutiny of 1857. In 1863, he married Jane Hunter of Clan Hunter, who later became the 26th Laird of Clan Hunter. Once married, the last name became hyphenated Hunter-Weston. He died in 1904. The cameo has some stress fractures, which someone decided to glue on the back side.

 

In my book, only cameos signed T Saulini F are by Tommaso.

The person who noticed this & pointed it out to me made some attempt to get Sotheby's to recognize it. Not wanting to sour his relationship with them, he didn't press it & Sotheby's wrote it off as having gone unnoticed by Eldred's.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/...aign=auction-alert&utm_content=lot-image-link



About 6 months later:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/fine-jewels-l18050/lot.189.html




Sold for 5,625 GBP, Sotheby's, 2018

Top 3 are T Saulini signatures from other cameos, then pix from Sotheby's & Eldred's. Compare the T & F.



Caveat emptor.

 

In our house it was potatoes!

 

@Bronwen, you probably saw these on Etsy, but I didn't see them on your Pinterest board.