Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 445487, member: 5833"]What do you consider an 'authentic' cameo?  This is an authentic, mass produced molded glass cameo, probably from the first half of the 20th century, in an authentic, inexpensive, mass produced setting. If you go back to page 41 of this thread & look at post #804, you will see a cameo carved by hand in helmet shell, which is what I imagine you mean by authentic, & it is mounted in 14K, so not cheap.  Nonetheless, the cameo itself is junk.  Authentic & cheap are not the two ends of the same scale. The fashion for cameos fell off as the Victorian era wound down.  When it picked up again, in the 1920s & 30s, cutters began depicting women whose hairstyles were more contemporary & whose features increasingly departed from the neoclassical ideal of a beautiful, mature woman in favor of a more girlish look, particularly for the nose.  By the 50s & 60s the noses looked like ski jumps, & the aesthetic has never changed back. Hardstone cameos & intaglios are now cut ultrasonically: [MEDIA=youtube]oZ-vQSryLMw[/MEDIA] Or using other modern engraving techniques: [MEDIA=youtube]1cUNliqiwCY[/MEDIA] Contemporary carvers of shell cameos have the benefit of power tools, but most of the work seems still to be done essentially by hand. If you browse through this thread, you will see a wide variety of cameos, in natural & man made materials, better & worse in execution.[/QUOTE]