Ah, the cameo. This pin is set in Sterling silver (marcasite to be exact; more on that in a future blog post) with a mother-of- pearl background, and an abalone carved silouette. There is no maker mark on the piece other than the 925 Sterling silver hallmark on the setting. As far as cameos go, I would say this hand-carved piece is a bit crude, but still very well-made and pretty.
Cameos can be made of many materials including shell, agate, "poured" agate, turquoise, molded resin, glass, and even painted porcelain. The most popular and collectible cameos are made of shell and agate. The cameo above was carved in relief, meaning the surrounding material was "cut away" to produce the image. In contrast, a cameo that is carved in intaglio is created by carving "into" a material to produce an image.
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in purchasing this piece. Questions, comments, and additional information are always appreciated. My online shop on http://www.ebay.com/ is coming soon.
Thank you to the following website(s) for the historical content of this blog post:
Espy Jewelry. Retrieved 2/8/2011 from http://www.espyjewelry.com/index.cfm/fa/categories.main/parentcat/6455
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