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Message:: [QUOTE="Bronwen, post: 5111009, member: 5833"]the history of cameos and their popularity are well documented.No, it is not. kameynye shellThis beast is completely unknown to Google, unless it's a typo for Kanye West.  The photo is of a shell in the Cassis family. Shell cameos, relatively new in the history of cameos, became popular six- to seven-hundred years ago during the RenaissanceWe do not know to what extent shell may have been used for cameos in antiquity as these would not have survived as well as their stone sisters.  I have not seen them to have been at all prominent in the Renaissance, when the quality of the mounts tends to outstrip that of the cameos they hold. the height of their popularity occurred during the Victorian era. Victorians, especially British Victorians, were enamored of Italy and all things Italian including cameos.Napoleon & his court were wild for cameos before Victoria, although the Order of Victoria and Albert she created does use a jugate cameo of the two in its badges. The vast majority of Victorian cameos depict the profile of a woman with intricately arranged hairWell, maybe, if you're counting the many profiles of goddesses, not just pretty lady types. and possibly a diamond. Cameos depicting women with jewelry such as a necklace, bracelet, earring or diadem are known as habillé, which means “dressed,” “clad” or “dressy.” Habillé cameos became popular during the 1840s.I refer you to the catalogue pages above. Originally the word “cameo” referred to relief images of contrasting colorWe have no idea whether or not this is true; the only requirement is that they be in relief.  Plenty of monochromatic glass Roman Medusa cameos out there. lava, which is not actually lava but gray, brown, white or putty-color igneous rock such as felsite, rhyolite, basalt, or andesite.'Lava' is a non-specific term, & some cameos described as lava are basalt, but the stuff we most often apply this term to is calcium carbonate based, from the sedimentary rock limestone. Hardstone cameos are characteristically not as large as shell cameos with the majority being in the dime- to nickel-sizeMust not have seen many hardstone cameos to say this with a straight face. This late 18th or early 19th century glass cameo depicts the head of a Roman soldierThe scaled armor suggests this is meant to be Athena/Minerva, a far more common subject than anonymous soldiers. Banded agate, which is multicolored, and sardonyx, which has parallel bands of brown to red alternating with white or black bandsSardonyx is banded agate that has layers of sard (dark brown chalcedony) & white.  It has to be dyed to achieve a black layer.  Not sure what these 'multicolored' stones are that the author has in mind. There are other nits I could have picked, but maybe these are enough.  PA will perhaps add some others.[/QUOTE]

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