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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 346271, member: 5833"]The important issue is not whether they are identical down to the last particle of material, it is whether they are too much alike not to have been made from a mold.  The seller identifies the one on the right as artificial; the question is whether the one on the left is as well.  There is no assumption that they came from the very same mold or even that they were made by the same company. Molds that were made from other molds instead of directly from the original modeling, like photocopies of photocopies, are liable to lose some detail, especially around the edges & in things like the slender end of a tendril. In the manufacturing process, the layers of color are not necessarily laid down perfectly.  Sometimes when you examine such a piece you find that the missing tendril tip is there, but in the orange layer because the casting could have used a smidge more white before the background layer was poured. In my experience, no two hand carved pieces are alike to this degree.  If it were confirmed for me that the back of the cameo on the left is flat, I would be 100% certain, no matter how convincing the color, that it is resin, not shell. Here are two cameos of the same subject done by the same hand: [ATTACH=full]116954[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]116955[/ATTACH] The differences between them are far greater than those between the two little Floras.[/QUOTE]