Featured Need some help with an usual cameo, size 6

This ring is definitely not up my ally! It did test at 14k. I am not sure if we are dealing with opaline glass and amber or Bakelite instead of the typical shell? The portrait is unusual as well - is this Socrates? Any suggestions would be great. I am assuming that date is 1942? Thank so much for looking!

 

Probably stating the obvious but...
I see the name Beatrice and the numbers 13 35 42.
With the numbers listed like that, I would not assume the 42 represents 1942.
Beautiful ring!

 

When I originally looked through my loops, I thought it was 12 25 42 with a fancy 2? Hum............it does look like a 3

 

The 3s in 13 and 35 look nothing like the 2 in 42, hence my deduction that they are indeed 3s. Of course, I don't have the ring in hand and am judging from only one photo.

 

I think it could be a date. That would make it a Christmas present to Beatrice in 1942.

Is this carved agate? Sardonyx?

 

I was thinking agate also.

 

I see 12 25 42 too

 

Looking at the joining of the head to the chalcedony backing, I think that it is agate also (a single piece). That fits with the nice setting. Looking at the fist photo, a speckling effect can be detected on the neck and face of the gentleman. To me, this points toward laser copying. The original, perhaps was shell or agate. If so, that would push the date up to the 70' +. Of course, I could be completely wrong.......

 

I also see it as hardstone & a Christmas gift to an American Beatrice. There is no reason not to believe that the cameo is contemporaneous with the mount & inscription.

Sort of, although used in reverse, with the white for the ground & the colored layer for the figure. 'Sard' is generally used for very dark brown chalcedony; this is more carnelian (cornelian). 'Onyx' comes from the Greek for 'fingernail' & is the white layer. We have gotten into the habit of calling chalcedony that has been died black 'onyx', but it really should be qualified as 'black onyx.' For some other examples:

https://cameotimes.com/index.php/reference/materials-guide?start=2

When I started the cameo show & tell thread, the first cameo I showed & told about was this one:



The engravers of both Laura's cameo & mine have smoothed the tousled hair down, but the primary image is this medal of Michelangelo by Girometti:

 

nice ring...!