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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 454243, member: 5833&quot;]If you are going to buy the Miller book, you want a later edition revised by Diana Jarrett.&nbsp; It is certainly comprehensive.&nbsp; I have never given it a thorough reading because I find it so riddled with errors that I can recognize, I am left wondering about the accuracy in areas where I have less knowledge.</p><p><br /></p><p>I pulled the 4th Edition off my shelf, flipped through &amp; stopped at page 30 to see what it had to say about two cameos pictured.&nbsp; Both are identified as Leda &amp; the Swan.&nbsp; One is; the other is a well-known, quite common version of Hebe &amp; the Eagle.</p><p><br /></p><p>Flipping around a bit more, found myself approving of the admonition that auctioneers &amp; appraisers do not always know very much about cameos (pg. 232) so that sometimes a knowledgeable buyer can get a good price.&nbsp; She goes on to give an example.&nbsp; I am going to go on at length here:</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="3">...a gold and stone cameo brooch with a mid-nineteenth-century label and this caption: &quot;Depicting an allegorical scene of two maidens overlooking a putto floating in the clouds, holding aloft a flower-filled cornucopia, as an owl surveys; the reverse signed F. Zignani, Engraver, Roma&quot;</font></p><p><br /></p><p>The piece sold for $577.&nbsp; The author believes it would have fetched more if only the auctioneer had mentioned that the piece was in excellent condition, &#039;masterfully carved&#039; and had identified it correctly:</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="3">Rather than being simply allegorical, this cameo actually contained portraits of Venus and Cupid with Minerva and her owl.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m sure any bidders could see the condition and quality of carving without having it pointed out.&nbsp; I have not seen it, but am willing to bet the scene described is the allegorical one of Day &amp; Night: Day with the Genius of Light; Night, with her owl, her veiled, nodding head wreathed with poppy pods not looking the least like Minerva.&nbsp; If they were familiar with common 19th century cameo subjects, bidders would have recognized the description as accurate.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]157090[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>I was expecting the clincher would concern the signature, which no doubt looked very much like this one, which does not say &#039;Zignani&#039;:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]157089[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>However, the Miller/Jarrett book makes no mention of the one thing that might have sent the bidding higher.</p><p><br /></p><p>Nearly all the illustrations are in black and white, limiting its usefulness as a primer on cameo materials.&nbsp; Buy it used; read with skepticism.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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