Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Thanks, @Bronwen. Just wondering if the same could be done for my lady. A visual is always helpful.

 

I swore I remember seeing the back of him and finally got the right keyword hit...

Back of the mount

 

I had to hunt him down with a flashlight. He was off in a corner of the display cabinet.





The setting has prongs, but they do not wrap around to the front of the cameo. Someone had to get the tension just right; he does not wiggle in the mount at all. It's a really industrial feeling setting & heavy in the hand.

# cameo bald man guy industrial

 

Thanks, @Bronwen! I appreciate you hunting him down. The picture is very helpful. I would like to get my lady set, and this gives me a better option than the one Menelaus has.

 

I was off finding & photographing the Bald Man (I love how cameist captured the bumps on his skull) & did not see this first. Not sorry to have taken better pix for the record.

Need to remember to put key words in posts we might want again. Will make a small edit to post with pix.

 

The lady is kind of a cross between Circe & the Samaritan Woman.



I have never seen a Menelaus with so much detail on the helmet visor & this particular detail. The sleeping dog has been left to lie, and then a swan(? or goose? don't think it's a stork) and a serpent in a confrontation. I cannot immediately assign meaning to it.

 

I remembered you describing him as a manly piece so I tried every masculine word plus mounting, but what finally did it was "heavy mount." Great idea with adding keywords, if not already in your description. I will have to do the same on future posts.

 

I picked this one up as I thought she had a rather sweet look, even though the photos were at an odd angle. After purchase, I was looking at the back zoomed in again and realized I saw a single faint curl that might be part of a signature. Did a little research and concluded it might be a J. Mouhé. She arrived, and confirmed my conclusion.







I believe Bronwen has a similar gal from him. I also found this sold one on an antique jewelry site. While they don't show the back, I suspect the hand is the same.



I like that he made the details in the hair and fabric different in each. Even though they are the same woman, artistic care was still given.

 

Great grab! Snagging something because you recognized an incomplete or indistinct signature & having it confirmed when the piece arrives is sooo satisfying. The cameo I use as my avatar is rectangular, set in a ring, so not very big. The underside had acquired grunge where the cameo met the mount, & you could not see the entire cameo back from any one angle. In one of seller's photos I could see what looked like 'ig' & I thought I recognized the script. It was: Tignani.

None of my Mouhes looks as much like these other two as this one from my files:

 

This is the image I had to go on. Signature, or man-in-the-moon? I thought it was the J but it's the e upside down.



I thought you owned that one, my mistake. That is the one that I thought looked like this one.

It was definitely thrilling to have it arrive and to be right! I think the more I look at these by artist, the better I am at judging whether something might have a signature on it. I should be so lucky to get another nice hardstone, let alone signed! I was very lucky to get the couple I did. It's amazing that you scored the Tignani based on that.

My other in-transit cameo that I thought might have a signature based on an "L" only seen in zoom also proved to be right, but it is having a loooong soak first before glamour shots.

 

I think it it after an etching of Menelaus and his buddies, which is probably using this bust as the starting point.



I have seen a couple other iterations of the engraving, and I think one of 2 things happened:1) the cameist didn't know how to sculpt an eagle or 2) the cameist mistook the the ridge in the helmet for the long neck of a goose because he was working from a poor engraving. So instead of the mighty eagle, we have a squawking goose.

 

ATTRIBUTED TO CANOVA; a cowrie shell, carved in cameo, height 14cm.

What?!!

 

Didn't know Canova was slummin it like that, but based on the supposed shell I'm guessing this seller is a bit mis-informed?

 

Auction houses mainly go by info given by the consignor. They really only do their own research for the rarest of the rare or the highest of high end.

Teeth in a cameo I don't mind:



https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/pdp...t/_Gold-and-Carved-Coral-Cameo-Pendant-Brooch

 

Accidental duplicate.

 

Teeth. Teeeeeeeth...



Had good long laugh when swiping the photos and the seller thought this was helpful:



I like that coral piece though. That frame alone is stunning. Defining individual teeth is never a good plan in art...

 

One for the Scary Clown file. I'd expect to see these guy peering up through a sewer grate.

 

Never trust a man with his ears sliding off his face...