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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 330151, member: 5833"]You can always do what others sometimes do in other forums & ask us to have a look at something you're considering buying.  Most of the time, with adequate photos, it isn't hard to tell real from fake, although some of the fakes are getting frighteningly good when it comes to appearance.  When you can't touch, they can be very convincing. To take the example of your resting peasant, if I were evaluating this in an on line listing, I would have no trouble knowing it was shell.  Modern fakes imitate the color really well, even the gradual shading, but they are never curved like this.  That concave back & the way the bezel has to rise & fall in a saddle shape to follow the edge give it away.  So does the less than machine-perfect carving.  Sometimes the tip off is that a piece is too perfect.  I even find the grime in the crevices a clue: natural materials, no matter how smooth to the fingertips, are always faintly grainy & hold skin oil & dirt more readily than do resin or glass.  One of the reasons, among several, I thought the red & white bearded man shown above was glass is that he was so grime-free.  Most cameos arrive here in need of a bath.[/QUOTE]