Is there such a thing as "pressed coral"?

I'm familiar with compressed coral, of no particular age, but the only pressed "coral" I know is glass or celluloid. A dealer I watch on Youtube looked at some cameos in an antique store that were tagged "compressed coral". One reason I strongly doubt it - the pieces he was looking at were the color of Mediterranean coral and... as if. George wrote the book, literally, on Treasurecraft pottery, and knows mid-century glass well too. Jewelry not always so much.

Look at about the 02:12 mark

 

The first one he calls "molded coral" & the second one "pressed coral". Think he's correct that they are artificial, but you are correct, glass or plastic. I have never, ever, encountered "pressed" or "molded" coral, just things that are coral colored. Visually they can be quite convincing.

These are all artificial:



Given that this guy thinks a mediocre 1950s/60s cameo is great work because of the hair...

 

interesting the the reverse of both show the same irregular dot indentations ....

 

I suspect hot needle tests.

 

I wouldn't know what kind of marks it would leave........

Did yer boots hold up to the walk ??

 

In the end, found the boots (Toe Warmers, BTW), bought many years ago, are now too tight to walk comfortably as much as my trip required, so wore something lower, also designed for winter. Fortunately, did not have to wade through ankle deep oily water or scale any mounds of snow, as can sometimes be the case.

There will still be cold, perhaps more snow, but you can feel winter is breaking as the sun strengthens & begins to reach the High North.

 

They look like bubbles burst to me.

 

Oh, YES! YAY!!

 

I didn't have the heart to tell him what a really good one looks like...but not that! I've read the Cameo thread one time too many. One jaw-dropper too many has ruined me for the apprentice work pieces that passed for "nice" in the 1960s.

Looks like air bubbles that burst to me too.

 

Yeah, that's how it goes. My taste has certainly developed with time & exposure to finer, more interesting, things.

Pulled out the 2 pieces in question to have another look-see. The super macro pix combined with a bit of shadow enhancing grime made the indentations on the backs look like more than they are. On the larger piece, which is some kind of resin, there is now barely anything to see. The second piece is glass & some scraping with a thumbnail removed most of the residual gunk there. The irregularities that were catching it are extremely shallow & not round. Slight imperfections, but it's not clear that they are evidence of either bubbles or hot needles.

The third piece has a covered back. It is hollow, probably a more Celluloid-type material than the larger one. Very commonly seen.

 

I may have a celluloid one here somewhere. I have a few of the black amethyst molded glass Czech pieces, for certain. What I like is that they don't pretend to be anything they're not.

 

I don't know if they're actually brand name Celluloid, but I have a few in a similar cellulose based material. Have shown this one before:



They can really look like ivory cameos, but give themselves away the moment you have them in hand by the light weight & plastic sound when tapped with a fingernail.

Here's another:

 

Celluoid is the type of plastic. I'd call these "french ivory"; real french ivory doesn't really try to fake anyone out, but close enough. . The first one sure looks good, like it's trying to really look like ivory.

 

Lifting from Wikipedia:

"Isaiah Hyatt dubbed the material "celluloid" in 1872... their company, now called the Celluloid Manufacturing Company..."
"Over the years, celluloid became the common use term used for this type of plastic."
"...ivory substitute under the names "Ivarine", "Ivaleur", "French Ivory", "Parisian Ivory", "Grained Ivory", and "Ivory Pyralin"."

I differentiate between material actually made by the Celluloid Manufacturing Company and others. I have many items made in Celluloid-type material, but most have no maker's name.

The Ceres cameo is a nice piece, set as a pendant in 800 silver, converted to a brooch in the past by suspending it from a chain attached to a plain bar pin.

 

If they set it in silver, they thought it was nice too. I never worried about the company name for this; they aren't exactly around to complain.