Featured My Gran's Cameo. Help Dating Please

Hello
Can someone please help me date this cameo brooch. It has a C clasp which I think dates it nineteenth century perhaps up to 1920?? I may be way off. I'm still learning.
Thank you.

 

Paging @Bronwen

 

Tracey, we have the world's best cameo expert here @Bronwen. Ask for her when you make a query about a cameo. She'll suss it out anyway, but that will get her to you faster, She has a most fascinating thread here on the subject. You can ooh and aah over some of her beauties there and you can post directly to that thread, so others of the same interest can learn
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/cameos-show-tell-or-ask-answer.23493/page-203#post-2788664

 

The hinge says 20th century to me, as said above, wait for Bronwen to chime in. She will be able to date it by the cameo's design and carving

 

You guys have me blushing. For more cameo viewing, see CameoTimes.com under Profiles.

Marie is quite right that the hinge is 20th century, mid-century, judging by the cameo, 40s - 50s. From the style of the mount, she may have been set in Italy, where the helmet shell was cut, rather than exported elsewhere for setting.

Nice to have one from your gran.

 

Thanks @Bronwen!!!

I am pleased with this cameo. I think I have a couple of pics of Gran wearing it.
Quick question - are the people carved into Cameos generally prominent people?
Thanks.
Tracey

 

During the heyday of cameos, from Napoleon's court to the end of Victoria's reign, subjects from mythology dominated cameos. There were of course portraits cameos. They range from very prominent, such as the badge for the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert, to portraits of tourists who went to Rome or Naples.
https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/cameo-portraits-of-victorian-ladies/
https://www.pinterest.com/cameotimescom/cameo-portraits-of-victorian-gentlemen/

Late in the 19th century cameos of richly dressed anonymous women began to appear. In the 1920s & 30s these shifted into idealized women influence by art nouveau. They continued on with changes to hairstyles & a preference for smaller noses. Yours is a bit unusual in that she has a straight nose, not an upturned one.

 

Wow! Thanks @Bronwen. I love that anonymous women featured late in the nineteenth century
I checked out the male cameos in the link you provided. For some very silly reason I always assumed cameos were of woman.
You mentioned the nose of my lady. When I looked closely I thought Greek? Can you please also tell me what the brown marks are that appear?
Sorry for the zillion questions x

 

Noses on both male & female mythological figures were straight & strong in the classical & neoclassical periods. During the Victorian era cameo cutters took their inspiration from the art work of those times.

The new century bought a shift into depicting imaginary beauties with a look more contemporary to their time. You can see that over the 20th century noses became smaller & more turned up, cute instead of classically beautiful.

Yours is new enough to have been made at a time of the new look in noses, but cutter went with an older look, as you say, Greek.

The brown on her curls & the orange on her chest are from the next layer of shell. They alternate brown & white.

 

Thanks so much @Bronwen. I find this incredibly interesting. Thanks for taking the time to respond x

 

I'm sort of the resident cameo expert here, so it's my job, you might say. Cameo education is my self-appointed mission.

 

What a great mission and passion to have!
Thanks again x