The most popular shells for carving cameos are those with natural layers of contrasting colors. Here is a cameo carved in a kameynye shell from the collection of author and historian Carol Greene. Napoleon, despite all his conquests, was in a way an aesthete. He greatly admired the brilliant execution of these miniature sculptures from the Greco-Roman period. As a skilled image-maker, Napoleon saw how they could serve as emblems of the new French Republic and associate them with Roman greatness. He had discovered the art form when he was campaigning in Italy as a young general, and when he brought a triumphant war hero back to Paris, he brought a large collection with him, as well as many of the most gifted cameo makers he had captured when he conquered Sicily. This full-faced Sardonyx shell cameo clearly shows the image of pure white on the rich reddish-brown undercoat. The contrasting shell layers are sculpted so that the top layer is removed to the desired image. The removed areas exposed the darkest layer underneath. progression of shell camas from the late 19th century to the 1920s; Both on the far right with hairstyles typical of the 19 teenagers in the 1920s.

The change in the shape of the face and nose is important – important differences in the attempt to date cameos. Cameos with round cheeks and aquiline or Roman noses (those with a distinctive bridge) usually date back to the 19th century, while cameos with prominent cheekbones and pugs or ruffled noses date back to the 20th century. It is also important to note the type of fastener that attaches the brooch to clothing. Nineteenth-century brooches have a C clasp and pens that protrude from the side of the brooch, as seen in the cameo in the bottom row, on the far left. If you can place a pin face up on a flat surface and see how the pen protrudes above the bezel and has a C clasp, then it almost certainly dates back to the first three quarters of the 19th century. One of the quickest ways to determine if your cameo is genuine or fake is to examine its material. Real and authentic cameos are made of natural materials and gemstones such as: onyx, sardonyx, agate, ivory, coral and lava. On the other hand, there are fake cameos produced in series in the form of plastic, resin or glass. With a handful of fake cameos in circulation, it`s important to do a careful evaluation to better determine the value of a cameo appearance.

The cameos of antiquity and renaissance were made of semi-precious stones,[3] mainly the different types of onyx and agate, and all other stones with a flat plan in which two contrasting colors meet; These are “hard” cameos. In cheaper modern works, shell and glass are more common. Glass cameo vessels, such as the famous Portland vase, were also developed by the Romans. The magnifying glass examination will usually reveal the thin line between the layers and often the reflective gloss of the adhesive, which is sometimes visible when the adhesive is pressed between the two layers (a solekism). As with all cameos, but especially with hard stone, the finer the strokes and the sharper and deeper the details, the better the cameo. After 1850, the demand for cameos increased as they became popular memories of the Grand Tour among the middle class. [10] Even Queen Victoria succumbed to the beauty of cameos and wore them regularly, and what Queen Victoria did, everyone did – on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. No accessory for middle- or upper-class women was complete without a cameo appearance of some kind. Napoleon had many of these carved medallions assembled as jewelry for his stylistic wife Josephine and her sisters. Eight years later, for his successor as emperor, he ordered golden crowns for himself and Josephine with cameos and ordered decorated furniture with them. Glass camels were formed by pouring molten glass into a rotogravure mold, which was usually made of clay. Glass could be poured in layers of different colors to be carved as soon as it was cooled or carved into monochrome glass, and then mounted on a glass background with contrasting paint.

The technique has since undergone periodic revivals, especially in the early Renaissance and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. The neoclassical revival began in France with Napoleon`s support for the glyptic arts, and even his coronation crown was adorned with cameos. Glass cameos experienced a revival in the twentieth century and are now highly valued by collectors, especially renowned designers such as Hobe, Bellini, Neiger, Whiting & Davis and Juliana. Cameos are often carved in shell, hard stone and even glass. Faces give clues about age and materials. Learn about the history of cameo jewelry and what makes some cameos more desirable than others. You can find a cameo that has a shell on the bottom and a bakelite plastic of very fine shape for the face. If you`re not sure what you`re seeing, bring your inheritance to a reputable antique dealer for inspection.

Cameos during and before the Victorian era featured allegorical, mythological, historical or religious images. Gods and goddesses, rulers, historical scenes, biblical scenes, Roman soldiers and beautiful women were themes for cameos worn by men and women. Later, in Victorian times, cameos depicting a woman`s profile were preferred and worn by men as watch pendants, embroidery pins, rings and cufflinks, while women wore cameos as brooches, rings, earrings, pendants and bracelets. My feeling is that technically and by definition, after being cut out of the shell, ultrasonically created pieces are cameos, but they are not real in the sense that they were not created using the millennial method of hand carving. They are also not unique, as are real cameos, but belong to a large group of modern, machine-made, tiny, identical clones. Many hard stone cameos can be found in the white/black variant, with a white cameo on a black background. Hard stone cameos are usually not as large as shell cameos, with the majority being the size of a penny to a nickel. The first six cameos are made of hard stone, the seventh is the shell of sardonyx and the eighth is coral. These necklaces date from the beginning to the middle of the Victorian era, mounted in gold; Two with the size of Saver.

Mid-18. ==References=====External links===* Official website Helmet shells (Cassis tuberosa) from the West Indies and royal mussel shells (Eustrombus gigas) from the Bahamas and the West Indies have arrived in Europe. This triggered a sharp increase in the number of cameos carved from shells. Mussel shells sculpt very well, but their color fades over time.