Featured Cameo Beginnings

I don't know him, but when I bought a cameo from him that he was selling directly on eB, I asked him to sign it before sending, in part because the subject is neoclassical, not in the contemporary Italian style.



Phaeton driving the chariot of the sun, after John Gibson. I do not want anyone, when it leaves my hands in future, to mistake it for Victorian.

 

That's a BEAUTY!

I've seen quite a few Pernice's on facebook. I think I've bought from one of their ebay stores. They all have the same last name and live in the famous cameo capital of Italy. Which I'm not going to disgrace by trying to write it. I recently saw a photo where one had mentioned he was in a shot with three other Pernice's. My guy (I don't like to give his name, because of the Disney thing) and your's were both in the photo. I think my guy is the youngest, and he wants to expand where cameos can go. When my wife and I die, the Disney that he's made us are going to fetch someone quite a bit of money.

 

Are they actually in the vicinity of Torre del Greco? Naples has such a poor reputation when it comes to crime, you would think no one making an honest living would want to live there. But I suppose Rome is horribly expensive, & Vesuvius, Pompeii, etc., are still where tourists come, so you stay where the market is. Along with my purchase, Aniello sent me a bit of literature, in Japanese. That's where the market for modern Italian cameos really is, although am seeing more & more attempts to offload them on the Bay.

You & your cameist are definitely wise to keep his name under wraps. The Mouse is famously litigious.

 

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Torre del Greco is where they're all said to be located.

The cameos I see being sold from China and Japan, look beautiful and hand carved, but look so perfectly exact, they have to be done by computer.

From the photos he sends, to the pieces I see coming from Torre del Greco, they all look hand carved. I do hide his name. But, I see many etsy sellers, making purely garbage items with Disney figures all over them, and there's many of them. So, I wonder what the legality of it actually is. I'd prefer for him not to find out. I won't even give out the China jeweler who made my Dali pin.

 

My best understanding is that a master cuts an original, which is then reproduced through some kind of digital pantograph.

I met Ms. Wallach once at a jewellery show. She was also cagey about who executes her cameo design.

https://www.katherinewallach.com/collections/cameos

 

Looking at her page, these are the ones that are massed produced in China or Japan. You can buy them very cheap on ebay.

I would be disappointed if I bought a cameo that was advertised as hand cut, and it ended up being mass produced. Hopefully I'm savvy enough to tell the difference. As time goes on, I'm questioning my own eyes.

 

Wallach, like Amedeo, has multiples of her designs produced. I did not think to ask her what happens after the first one is cut. Probably wouldn't have told me. I don't think she makes any representation that each & every one is cut by hand.