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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 3387424, member: 5833&quot;]The plaster casts were made as impressions of engraved gems, mainly intaglios, but some cameos.&nbsp; They became a wildly popular collectible.&nbsp; <a href="https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems/tassie/default.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/gems/tassie/default.htm" rel="nofollow">James Tassie</a> was the major producer, but he had many competitors.&nbsp; Some, such as Paoletti &amp; Liberotti, made sets that were contained in boxes made to look like books &amp; that might have a theme, e.g., gems that copied the works of the sculptor Canova.&nbsp; They included an index identifying the subjects.&nbsp; These impressions were not made for the benefit of cameo cutters, but they did function like a style book; most shell cameos with a classical theme can be traced back to an impression &amp; from there to the gem behind it.</p><p><br /></p><p>I had forgotten some of the fun we&#039;ve had with cameos.&nbsp; These days I see bad ones, but, alas, not the grotesque ones of old.</p><p><br /></p><p>Re: the miniature cameos of illustrious men.&nbsp; There must have been a workshop that turned them out in quantity.&nbsp; They&#039;re durable, would expect them to survive well, although the small size &amp; the small items of jewellery they are mounted in may mean they got lost along the way.&nbsp; You could decide to collect them &amp; save money that way: they are not common.&nbsp; With four, you already have the largest collection of them I know.&nbsp; Trying to remember who was on the other 2 I&#039;ve seen.&nbsp; Could&#039;ve been Michelangelo &amp; Leonardo.&nbsp; They would make a great set of shirt studs.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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