Featured Hermes Tortoise shell and ivory Cameo

Is this what you believe? I could believe it too, if the pre-turn-of-the-century date isn't Art Deco.

OH THANKS FOR POINTING THAT OUT!!!
I LIKE this cameo all the more for it! Yes, her linear nose and headgear looks Art Deco to me.

Thanks to evelyb for pointing out that it's a head piece! I'd have thought it horrific to hang from her ear lobes!!!

 

I dunno, Bronwen, she looks Art Deco era to me... Any chance of that?
The Perseus statue looks more neo-classical revival 19th century to me..

 

I think it is the more probable explanation but the other can't be ruled out; we don't know the cutter's intent.

However, while I have occasionally seen cameos with flapper girls as the subject, I can't recall ever seeing a cameo that struck me as being Deco in style of execution; the setting maybe, but not the cameo itself. Also, I would not feel confident dating this one any later than 1925, when Deco was just beginning to be a design movement.

 

Didn't realize Perseus was transgender. Actually, happen to know that one of our members just bought a Perseus cameo that is very effeminate. Hope she will show it on the board.

It is neo-classical. I'm working on the possibly incorrect assumptions that the cutter of this one was working from an image that was reasonably true to the sculpture & that he was doing his best to copy it accurately. Either or both of these ideas may be wrong.

 

BTW, with the combination of ivory & tortoiseshell, suspect the piece is French.

 

Oh please forgive my dyslexia! hahahaa!!
I get stuff like that wrong all'a the time!!
Actually, I will love to see any cameo, thanks to you, Bronwen <3

What makes you think this Perseus cameo is so much older than Art Deco era, please?

 

Hmmm, I think I have seen similar to the stylization of this particular one, and assumed was done in the early 1930s, never occurred to me that there would be a gap in cameo production?

 

That round hinge suggests a later date. It is more consistent with the 1920s than with late 19th century.
C-clasps are still used, even in the Western world, so that is always tricky to go by.

The combination of the style of the carving with the findings (round hinge v tube hinge) still look Art Deco to me.

 

The "Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes" , the exhibition Art Deco was named after, was originally planned for 1915. WWI threw a spanner in the works, and the efforts to get France and French arts back on their feet financially, meant the exhibition had to be postponed to 1925.
That didn't mean that between 1915 and 1925 the decorative arts in Western Europe suddenly did a backflip into the fashions of ca 1900.

In short, Art Deco already existed on a significant scale in the 1910s, but became more widely known after 1920. A delay due to geo-political events.

 

One of my cameos seems to be of similar materials as @Simona Buhus 's. It is just a "pretty lady" with comb and veil in her hair. The setting includes marcasites, and is marked 925 with another impressed mark I can't see well enough to identify.

I'm not looking for ID, but I don't think this dates any earlier than 1920s, and probably it's later. Not particularly Deco in style. I received it as a gift about 10-15 years ago.

 

So so beautiful , thank you for sharing.
And thank you all for your opinion, much appreciated

 

OH SNAP!! Thanks, AJ, I never knew this exposition didn't occur on a first scheduling and had to be postponed for a decade! OK, NOW a lot of dots connected in my brain as to why the post-1930 dating of art deco pieces has always seemed "TARDY AND OFF" to me!! And again, as to why some art deco pieces "evolved" much earlier than the war!! Even Downton Abbey clothing now makes more sense to me, knowing this postponement! Additionally, I suspect the general population was a bit down-tempoed due to the war, making the appearance of art deco style a bit of a down scaled event entrance into society.

 

I think you are correct as to the origins of the Perseus carving source! Thanks for all of your knowledge and educated opinions. Your experience on the cameo threads has been invaluable for me to learn about cameos

 

I don't. It's the sculpture that is neo-classical. I was responding to:

It has been my observation that cameo cutters are not at the forefront of design & fashion trends. Here is a catalogue page from 1920:



This one from 1930 has a single lady with bobbed hair, the small cameo near the center:


Wish I had more examples from the 30s. Here is 1941:




The maker of Simona's cameo was not a Neapolitan working in shell, so perhaps more in touch with fashions of the day, particularly if I am correct about the cameo's being French.

Think the hinge is a replacement. Look at how the pin stem has to bend upward to reach it. Originally the pin stem must have extended a little past the edge of the mount.

I'll take late 19th off the table. Still think 1925, maybe 1928, is the terminus ante quem & that it would be an extremely avant garde cameo cutter to be working in the Deco style at that time. But...?

 

These senoritas are a 1950s type. Yours is meant to look like the same materials as used in Simona's brooch but as far as I can see all man made. The tortoiseshell appears to be glass. I can't tell about the figure, whether glass fused to glass or resin glued on. Bright light on the back might show if there is a glue spot.

 

Thank you. That makes sense. The tortoiseshell part is not glass. It seems to be plastic. The figure is also not glass, so glued on. Looking at the back didn't help in seeing a glue spot, but it would have to be glued. I don't have a setup for putting this in front of a light to take a photo. I finally hung it from a hook I use to display a little ornament. This won't disclose anything new, but here it is with light behind it.

 

A pretty little piece & no one but you will know her secrets.

 

Celluloid maybe? It is sweet, whatever the material.

 

Me too, yes, ++I figured out your response too, thanks!

Thanks! These are def old style designs! Even the bobbed hair one looks older...
The 1941 catalog examples all look like MOTHERS to me!! Happy Mother's Day cameos!!

I was thinking it was this^^
..Until I saw your catalog pages of antiquity carvings as modern style!
I hope it is the most "art decoish" carved cameo I've ever seen!