Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

A very pale shell?
A nice buy for cheap

 

I was going to speculate that maybe the bag had once been home to a cameo en habillé (one of those ones where the figure herself is wearing jewellery) but then considered the size of a 1 carat diamond & decided probably not. Quite a nice little dividend! Given what they did so you get it paid for, I think mom had a claim on the rock. Is 'the girlfriend' now 'the wife', that you were able to show us the cameo that laid the diamond egg?

 

Turn of the 20th century, as kyratango has already surmised a particularly light section of helmet shell rather than the more usual orange, a rather loosely executed Zeus.

 

Just bought these unmounted ivory cameos, nice carving and size, 5,5 x 4 cm.
Described as orthodox priests, calling @Any Jewelry, if she recognize the popes

No pics of the back, I'll update after getting and cleaning them

 

Wow kyra, you have been busy buying unusual beauties.
Yes they are Eastern Orthodox. I think the one on the left is St Cyril. The one on the right could be his brother Methodius. Both are important saints in the Eastern Orthodox church.

 

More on the brothers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius

 

Yay! Thank you AJ! I knew you’d know

 

I'm not 100% sure, but 99%. I hope Cyril and Methodius is good enough as a working title.

 

I like this one. I wonder who he is? @Bronwen , any ideas? Somebody from the Bible?

 

Zeus

 

Beautiful! When you get them cleaned up, will you show us? And can I put them on my Pinterest boards for ivory?

I could see they were figures from the Orthodox tradition, but would not have known where to start on an ID. Only one seems to be styled as a saint, so maybe not both brothers? Although Cyril always seems like a good bet. I imagine people might also have precious images of patriarchs, just as there are gems of popes who are not saints?

 

Yes... Yes.... AND YESSSS!

 

Great, by cheap I'm talking $12 and it came combined shipping with a really nice 18K bracelet that I got for less then scrap value.

Zeus, god of the sky and thunder.
Would he bring any luck to a blackjack table?

 

I did a little digging and the patron god of gamblers was Hermes/Mercury rather than Zeus. Not that the top dud was probably averse to rolling some bones here and there. Only he used real bones.

 

Travelers, merchants & thieves. Not surprising gamblers are in there too.

 

The way I was willing to take the gamble that the Athena with 3 faces was hardstone, & not faux as seller represented, I would not gamble on this one, even at a third the asking price. Unmarked, gold fineness determined by test.

A Lovely Antique Victorian 15ct Yellow Gold Banded Agate Hardstone Cameo Brooch





A lovely, well made piece, but too many indicators of glass.

 

It does have that soft-molded feel... and it looks like you could drive a truck in the layer of air between her chin and the black back.

And yet there are spots that look like the "aura"...

What I love is having anything to say at all about why I think it is or isn't something.

So, thank you for that!

 

Is the black/grey line through her hair more indicative of one than the other?

 

Do you mean right on the crown of her head? Indicative of need of a bath.

 

Fully acknowledging that judging from photos can be tricksy, it doesn't look like dirt to me. . . except maybe it does.

So. Would the "aura" be intentional deception (not of the seller, but the maker)?