Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

She looks like she was done from a real human. The seller's price is a tad ambitious, unless he or she finds one of the lady's relatives with DEEP pockets and no common sense.

 

It is signed by [Pio] Siotto, whose workshop was near the jeweller's shop, at 97 Piazza di Spagna.



He seems to have specialized in portraits. I have never yet identified a work by him of any other sort. He advertised his portraiture services in English language tourist publications, so actively courted those customers.

I have 2 by him:




You will notice from these several examples that the carved frame around the edge of the cameo was a characteristic of his work.

 

During what time span was Siotto active in cameo carving? (Just curious.)

 

Roughly second half of the 19th century, contemporary with Tignani, Rosi, et al.



From: Cook's tourist's handbook for southern Italy, 1875

 

When I first saw her, I wondered that I had not seen #1647 as a cameo.



Still haven't, but here she is in glass:



Item 127954846847 on the Bay.

 

Because I'm an idiot, I'm going to ask, the photo with the numbers attached, is this what carvers used as their template for carving? If it's not, what is it used for?

 

Not in the least idiotic, just a resource you would probably enjoy exploring. Unfortunately, due to deaths & budget cuts, I don't think anyone is actively tending to it anymore & it has become even more awkward to use than it used to be.

The B&W pic is from the Beazley Archive at Oxford's Classical Art Research Center (CARC). They photographed the huge collection of impressions of engraved gems taken by James Tassie, catalogued by Rudolf Erich Raspe at the end of the 18th century.

https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/carc/gems/James-Tassie

I most often start with the Index because I'm usually looking for images of a particular subject. When I find a promising entry, I enter the number into the search box & take a look at the plate. To learn more about impressions of interest I look at the corresponding text.

Unless your eyes are very good, the first thing you might want to do is to increase the image size. The default setting has become very small. The Index is in French, but so many entries are proper names, very similar in French & English, this isn't much of an issue. The Text is in both English & French. Raspe tends to favor Roman names over Greek, so the lady that prompted your question is listed as Minerva. Cupid/Eros (cupids/erotes) is under Amour(s). The catalogue dates to the time when the letter S, when it occurs in a position other than the end of a word, is written with a character that looks more like a lower case F Words starting with I or J are listed together.

[Sometimes the site is glitchy & you have to find a workaround. Requesting the Text for 1647 gets an error message; you can bring it up by asking for 1602.]

This should give you something to do while it's too hot to go outside.

 

Raspe compiled & organized impressions Tassie collected from sources ranging from the gem cabinets of the good & great to the modern work of his time, which included portraits he himself made. Tassie was in the business of selling these impressions, made in several different materials to suit the depth of one's pocket. The catalogue was produced as a way of informing the public of the wares on offer.

Collecting the plaster impressions became wildly popular, & you can still find whole specially made cabinets full of them, although sellers now generally seem to offer them individually. Tassie's success led to a number of competitors, most notably Paoletti. Some enterprising individuals who had shops, such as Francesco Carnesecchi, sold impressions as well as work from their own hands.

 

Data's mother!!!!!!!!!

 

THANK YOU. That's AMAZING. I'm going to try to find something similar to the agate one stolen in 2007. My wife also remembers a couple kissing. I don't remember that one.

 

That one cameo looks so much like Robert Louis Stevenson.

Debora

 

I'm not good at making out what faces look like under ebullient facial hair. They all look like they're from the same litter to me.

 

And who knew RLS had a soul patch?

 

Aarrgghh! I won't out them, but this auction house sells a lot of engraved gems and of course present what they have to say about an item as authoritative. Their one photo doesn't actually capture what they describe: Signed NIXAEP. But I don't need to be able to see it to know it is ΠΙΧΛΕΡ - PICHLER. Hard to know from a single photo, but also looks suspiciously like glass to me. Wonder if auction houses have started to use AI to write up items.

 

now that's a some finger lickin good soul !

 

It wouldn't surprise me. Hallucinations and silly errors included free of charge. And to think, all I ever included was some free cat fur.

 

I recently got a new cameo in the post. I saw it listed on ebay a while back but had some reservations (one being that the price was out of my range) but it didn't sell for a few weeks and the seller kept dropping the price. Eventually it got low enough to be within my cameo budget (≤£20).

I was put off by the hinge type on the back as I generally buy older cameos, but I liked the subject and really wanted to know what it looked like under all that grime.

Here she is washed. She is not the most refined carving but I am quite pleased with her. I would appreciate any estimates of age, the mount looks newer than I'm used to but the carving doesn't look too new. I was also drawn to buy her due to a misidentification in the listing. She was sold as "Made from real Cornelian (Conch) shell", which is wrong in so many ways...


In passing, I've seen some sold listings on ebay for unidentified Schmoll cameos. Would it be of interest if I posted them here?

 

I am guessing these were in 14k bezels and they were broken to get to the gold. My wife got them at the flea market this past weekend. They're carved beautifully. It's such a shame. It's like seeing a talented artist's painting, and it has a dozen holes in it.

I don't know if I ever posted this photo. It's neat. It shows the process of my Figment cameo being made. Now lets take a hammer too it.

 

It certainly is. Pica pica, would you be able to get a photo of the edge taken directly from the side, ideally with a bit more light? I would also be interested in what she looks like seen from the back with light coming through from the front, if possible. I'm getting mixed signals from these pix & want to clear up my thinking.

Her hair is arranged in a "Venus knot", so we know who she is. I agree she is not old old, but antique, or very nearly so. When I see such a sturdy C clasp, I take it as a sign of good quality overall.

About the under the radar Schmolls, sure, let's see 'em. Now & then we have posted ones yet to be sold in this thread, so sold ones may include some of those. Can't hurt to see them again. This site has become the Land of Schmoll. I'm keeping watch on a hardstone Schmoll. Auction house have not noticed the cameo is signed, much less by whom. Suspect the fancy mount will drive it up past where I'd like to go, but we'll see.