Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

The necklace face and hair make this interesting. The crumbling gives it age. She actually likes old old old.

Thank you. She likes things that are different.She has a few lava cameos that I think are carved. Now I'm not sure. This one is just different enough to be appreciated.

I'm just trying to find a decent one for our anniversary. I thought I could get the carver to do one. But, he's been on vacation for a month, and he's working on her B'day present which is going to take a bit of time.

I'm seeing nice ones that are extremely expensive IMO, and ones like this that are interesting, very affordable, and questionable about how it's made.

Looking through ebay, I'm seeing poorly carved ones, that apparently aren't carved at all. I'm seeing a dozen, and they're exactly the same thing. Which makes me wonder if they're even old.

 

identical = molded molded = not old

Just because something is in poor condition does not mean that it's old. The opposite can also be true. For really old old, you would have to go back to imperial Rome or earlier. Since cameos were not made then nearly as often as intaglios, your lady might have to expand the borders of her collection, if she wants to go that far back.

Genuine Renaissance cameos are not plentiful, fetch very high prices, &, weirdly, are frequently not that good. But the settings define Bling! It seems the Medieval period did not really produce engraved gems. They did repurpose classical ones, sometimes recutting them to accommodate a Christian interpretation, sometimes setting them so the engraved side was hidden.

Maybe start taking a look at fob seals & see if you can find something particularly suited to her or to the message you would like to send her.

 

I still have 3 weeks, and I'll come upon something. Since it's getting later than I like, I don't want to buy something that ends up being crap. I'm two for two in the crap department. Looking at them with an untrained eye, they have unique qualities that are uniquely crap.

 

Reminds me of a lecture my friend attended in college 50 years ago now, she was an art history major. The lecturer talked about how something done in a primitive manor may not be old. It's a lesson I always have remembered.

 

I have at times asked someone I thought would know more than I whether something was old, or just crude.

 

I'm dithering over whether or not to say something to this seller. I don't understand how things like this happen.

Seller wants US $1,500.00 for this brooch:



If you were not knowledgeable about cameos, this would probably convince you too that this is a very valuable one:



One of seller's assertions is: "This is a heart stone [it only just occurred to me they mean hard stone] cameo could be an agate or Carnelian . Cameos like this were usually carved in Idar Oberstein Germany,"

This is almost endearing: "The brand is Cameo, known for producing high-quality and unique jewelry pieces."

The bit I don't get is how a painted glass cameo that is probably among the top 5 most reproduced ends up in a gold mount.

 

maybe Snowman had it made for his beloved ...?

 

it is Carmen....right...

 

See, I knew it..! .....