Featured CAMEOS: Show & Tell or Ask & Answer

You know, there is a sort of half moon rounded shape right in the center top of her hair; something may have been set there but idk. She came to me unmounted in a small $5 box of various Victorian bits from a little country house here in GA, so I've no idea really....One thing for sure, I was very happy that I got out of bed that morning.

 

Oh my, all those hair bracelets! Quite a haul. Still think it is Ceres & the gap just the space between the 2 ends of the wreath.

 

The half moon denotes the goddess diana.

 

Would need to see it from other angles to form a final opinion. For now, I'm sticking with Ceres.

Think you mean a crescent moon is an attribute of Diana, although have seen many so plump they look like fluffy croissants.

 

This is a bad picture of a tiny coral Diana in my collection. The lamp over my desk makes everything look yellow. The paper behind is white; she is not so orange-y as this.

 

Sorry, yes meant crescent moon!

 

Just came across this auction listing for four 19th century shell cameos. What's wrong with this picture?

 

They seem shell... 19th century to me...
Your eye is so sharp you surely can see someting wrong which I don't realize

 

Look at the one on the left & then go back to the post of yours I replied to. Look familiar?

Edit: The other 3 are shell.

 

I adore cameos, of course, but some of them fascinate me in part because the findings are elaborate or unusual. Most often I see creative solutions to making a piece convertible from a pin to a pendant, but the safety measures taken on this one...

 

Aahhh! Thanks Bronwen for pointing it.Of course!!!
As I’m on vacation, my tablet isn’t good enough for images... so, this one is resin too?

 

That particular image is always artificial, although I have seen shell cameos that are similar. I have no idea whether or not 'resin' would be the correct term for the material Danbiere used. Wonder if the firm & their methods was ever documented, if there is a record, just not on line. These deserve admiration in their own right, along with early Incolay, so superior to any competitors.

Even when the seller recognizes & states explicitly in the description that one of these is artificial, the image is so appealing, they still fetch very good prices for costume quality brooches.

 

I don't know whether the first one that looks like sardonyx was made by Danbiere; only one I have seen in this color & have never seen any other cameo of theirs cracked this way. Second one is helmet shell. Suspect it was inspired by the Danbiere cameos, not the other way around.

 

Hi Bronwen,
That second cameo you have pictured just took my breath away.
greg

 

Afraid it is not mine, a photo I saved for exactly this purpose, as an instructional example. Hoping this thread will expose those with some interest in cameos to what more cameos can be than pretty ladies, although this one sort of falls into that category.

 

Found this site on another forum,modern cameos with many photos...

https://www.gerolominigallery.it/

 

Thanks for adding that. My favorites are the octopi. Japan is a big market for modern Italian work. Maybe we could invent a word for the style: camanime or animeo.

 

I was looking at other things and ran across a mention of this tiara. Bronwen, if the Swedish royal family ever kicks it loose, I know where it's going!
http://www.langantiques.com/university/Tiaras#mediaviewer/File:Cameo_Tiara.jpg

 

If I had that one I'd wear it daily. It's a famous piece. We think of Queen Victoria as popularizing cameo jewellery, but the whole Napoleonic court was mad for it.

Was someone else as taken with Queen Mary's bandeau tiara as I was?

 

Queen Mary had her faults, but her taste in jewelry wasn't one of them. That everything all the time style wasn't so hot, but she knew a good pile of rocks when she saw one.