Featured French Jet cameo? Please help

[This has been a work in progress.]

This one has been flying under my radar. I looked in the 3 of my files where I might have stored her - artificial cameos, glass cameos, cameos of Demeter/Persephone - and only found this one:




She's not identical, the earring is the most obvious difference, but they must have a primary source in common, possibly another coin. I could not find this likeness in the Tassie impressions.

From Simona's verbal description, I was imagining some features as a little different than her terrific photos show they actually are. The reddish color I thought would be more like this:



The spreading glue I thought would be more like the area at the front of the hair of this lady:



It is not glue; it is a bit of the ground layer left to reinforce the tendrils, what I call an aura.

[More to come.]

 

Isn't this always the way?

https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...utm_campaign=keywordalerts&utm_content=245344

 

Simona's cameo could also be interpreted as Arethusa, minus the dolphins. I don't see Persephone, as there is no grain at the top of the wreath. Here is a pic from the MFA Boston, for comparison. I did recently read an article about the transition of Arethusa to Persephone in ancient coinage, due to the change of the society from a seafaring to agrarian culture. So both interpretations may be correct.

 

There is a grain stalk in her hair. It is immature, as Persephone is an immature version of her mother. Which is not to say that she never appears with a ripened stalk, but she's only distinguishable from Demeter then if it has her name on the coin. Demeter, Persephone & Arethusa get sort of jumbled up on the coinage of Syracuse & the other islands in the area of Sicily, which is where the abduction of Persephone took place.

Usually, Demeter has ripe grain, a diadem and/or an occipite veil, no earrings. Persephone, an unripe stalk of grain, bi-or tripart earrings, no dolphins. Arethusa, earrings, dolphins, no grain. Usually, but not always.

See a couple of really nice examples in the slide show here:

https://www.archaeology.wiki/blog/2023/05/08/alpha-bank-presents-the-other-side-of-the-coin/