Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

Overnight? So much of what I've read today during google searches stresses not to soak shell cameos for more than 30 seconds.

EDIT: How does one tell the difference between conch and helmet shell cameos?

 

Not to soak them in what? If you can easily find a link or 2 giving that info. I'd like to see. These all used to live in salt water, 24/7. I have soaked many, many shell pieces with no detectable ill result. Info given by museum curatorial sources tend to be super-super cautious. They're acting in a fiduciary position, with the responsibility of preserving every last molecule of material for future generations. Most of us are not. I asked a shell collector/dealer once about what people in her field do & she said absolutely give them a good soak periodically. She also advocated oiling them (whole shells), which some people do with cameos too. I choose not to; it is skin oils holding most of the grime they arrive with. It does not harm them, but will become dingy & has to be redone every so often.

The flippant answer is, they look different. Helmet shell cameos have a background layer ranging from bright orange to dark brown to taupe. They always use the white layer for the figure, never the other way round. Some have a background layer thinner than a fingernail; some are so thick they can be mistaken for stone; most are somewhere in between. Nearly all have some degree of curvature.

Conch shell pieces have one layer that is anywhere from bright pink to a shade so pale it is virtually white. Most often cut as a white figure on a pink ground, it is sometimes cut the other way around. It is frequently confused with pink, 'angel skin' coral. Conch shell pieces are thicker & heavier than helmet shell and the back can be quite flat.

If you go back through the pages of this thread you will see many examples of each type. You may also want to browse through this:

https://cameotimes.com/index.php/reference/materials-guide

 

Way back on page 7, post 131, I showed these cameos of Perseus:



and said:

Since then have realized the part I was reading as possibly 'Varon', the name of another 19th century artist, says Graveur. It is the longer, more faintly incised, less legible word above that is the name of the cutter: Reverchon. He just made very flamboyant lower case 'r's that look like upper case 'V's.

 

http://www.cascosrl.it/en.cameomaintenance.htm

https://connoisseurs.com/jewelry_care_tips/how-to-clean-a-cameo/

https://www.antiquers.com/threads/cleaning-cameo.23886/page-3
post #44
EDIT: I see that earlier in the above linked thread, you talk about soaking overnight and state its safety.
RE: conch/helmet shells - DUH, I remember reading that now, thank you for reminding me!

 

The Casco people (they deal in contemporary Italian cameos) recommend leaving oil on overnight to 'hydrate' them & also suggest commercial jewellery cleaner for pearls. There's no reason to believe that oil can sink in, no matter how long you let it sit on your cameo. Like using moisturizer on your skin right after bathing, it may help hold in water after a soak.

'Connoisseurs' is the brand name of a line of jewellery cleaning products; not too surprising they recommend them. I have their mild formula, which is the one recommended for pearls. Instructions say you can leave jewellery in the solution for up to 30 seconds, which I take to mean no more than that. This is what I think the Casco 30-second rule is about, not plain water & mild soap. Although I have never visibly damaged a cameo by using the dip, I rarely resort to using it on cameos anymore - it's a little too effective on gemstone jewellery for me to trust it with softer shell! When I do, I swish the piece up & down for just a few seconds before removing, brushing briskly at the problem spots that got the cameo dunked in the first place, then rinsing very thoroughly.

The member who gave advice never went on to become a regular, so I have no sense of how knowledgeable/experienced they were. If you did more searching on this site you would find other threads where I put in my 2 cents. It's a contentious subject. A friend & I even disagree over whether, if you're going to oil, it's OK to use scented baby oil or not. (She likes the fragrance; I wouldn't want to apply any extra ingredients, even if they are safe for baby skin.) I just know what has been effective & seemed to be safe for me.

This is not blanket advice for cameos of all types, and sometimes there are considerations with the setting. Care should always be taken not to leave a shell cameo for too long in conditions that promote Bynes' 'disease'.

 

Thank you so much, @Bronwen, I trust your advice! Too bad there's so much misleading info on the internet... in this and many other subjects, LOL. I'm very grateful that we have you to guide us concerning cameos. I've always had an affinity for them but very little knowledge.

 

Thank you for your kind words. I get so much enjoyment out of cameos, hate to see people shy away from them because they think they are too fragile to do anything other than like around in Grandma's jewellery box. Very few old ones that have survived down to today are as fragile as all that.

 

Another one for my collection.. this one came unexpectedly, she was in a brooch lot.. I think she was an earring (?).. the metal tests as 10k, I'm thinking to make it a pendant.. I wouldn't mind if other cameos would want to come to me this way..

 

Well done coral piece. Does look like she was once a post earring. It would be nice if she could be wearable again. I've been toying with the idea of making sort of a charm necklace out of a few little cameos/intaglios I have, all completely different.

 

Your idea is much better than mine, Bronwen ! Now my pendant idea sound so dull.
I'm sure the charm necklace will look wonderful ! Please show us pictures when it will be done..

 

For once, not a mythological, nor pretty lady... A BUNNY!!!

 

A hare, nice! Looks quite old. What is the back like? A scholar friend wrote a whole paper about mice on ancient engraved gems.

 

Yesterday's mail:


The Diana of Versailles, signed with what looks like 'T. Mocchi', listing pic shown previously, now after a long soak in soapy water & a gentle brushing. @bluumz


The seller is probably correct that this one depicts Poseidon & his main squeeze, Amphitrite. Everything points that way, although the sea god had other dalliances (didn't they all?), & Cupid over there on the left is pouring water from a wide-mouthed jar, usually the symbol for the god/personification of a major river. Love the hippokampoi on the right, nuzzling, making sort of a heart with their curved necks.

The material is a type of shell I have yet to identify. It is not common & pieces cut in it all seem to be older, early Victorian at the latest. It is often mistaken for hardstone, even by the likes of Sotheby's & Christie's, especially when the back & edges are covered by the setting, as on this one. Most specimens whose back I have seen have an indentation consistent with the attachment point for a muscle, which makes me think the shell is a bivalve, not a univalve like the helmet shells.



This little guy seems like the embodiment of joy. Guilt-free: Celluloid or similar. Mold may have been taken from a carved original.

 

Who does this cameo depict? The woman with the crown also has a halo... a martyred queen?

 

Uh... I unwatched it once posted here... Impossible to find it again I think it was in France, sold for less than 130€ the mount didn’t look very old on the back, but I don’t remember if it had a C clasp.

 

Ha! I just retrieved the listing
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.fr/ulk/itm/292845252401

 

I had not seen this one before. Although the image does not quite match the story as told here, she is not producing roses from under her mantle, she does have them on what could be a bread platter. St. (Queen) Elizabeth of Portugal:

https://saltandlighttv.org/blogfeed/getpost.php?id=38052

The standard way of indicating a martyr is to give her/him a palm frond to hold. For example, St. Lucy:



I have a Pinterest board for cameos of saints. Do you have a link for Liz?

https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/saintly-cameos/

 

Notice it is over a listing for une mouche. (I think it is une abeille.) Why am I not surprised?

 

I convo’d you.

 

One for @kyratango



http://www.ebay.com/itm/254023218954