Posted 7 years ago
endeeringl…
(40 items)
i picked her up in a recent ebay lot, but I'm not yet sure if she's supposed to be flora or bacchante or any other goddess.
there is a crack, unfortunately, but i got the lot rather cheaply, so after a clean (though i see i missed a fuzz from my q-tip haha) and conditioning in some mineral oil, i still very much enjoy this cameo. i just love that twisted silver setting, as well. i dont know how to tell if it's sterling, or plated, as this one has no marks and i'm not versed in identifying silver.
nice catch!
are you sure its a she? might be a he as well
thanks!
the flowing hair is more reminiscent of a goddess in my opinion. the older cameos were usually carved with a straight or roman nose whether god or goddess, but i am not an expert and don't want to make a final confirmation unless anyone else is more sure than i am ahah
This is a very pretty Victorian cameo. Sometimes maker marks aren't obvious, so check the backside of the ribbon design. I see something that could be a stamp. Can't tell for sure in the photo.
thank you efesgirl!
ah, i thought that, too! i just took a close up peek and it looks like where the two ends of the coil met and were soldered together
*if you meant that lower right hand portion of it, that is
Yes, that's what I saw in the photo. Couldn't tell if it was a stamp or something else.
Have the metal tested, then you know for sure.
I'll have to make a trip out to a jewelry dealer next free day, I get then
just a thought...
could this also be antinous vertumnus? i wasn't thinking it could be a male subject, but i've been doing some more digging. can anyone chime in with what they think?
She is a bacchante/maenad, wreathed in ivy leaves & berries, not seen quite so much as grape vine, but also consistent. You would be within fair limits to claim it is Ariadne, who, after helping Theseus escape from the labyrinth & Minotaur & then being abandoned by him on the island of Naxos, is given by the gods to Dionysus/Bacchus as his wife. She is not conventionally depicted as just another female follower. When wreathed at all, it tends to be with ivy.
It is not unreasonable to think of Antinous in this connection. In the eastern part of the Roman empire his worship was very much mixed with that of Dionysus, & the sculpture known as the Antinous Braschi shows him in this guise. There are cameos that follow that work; this is not one of them.
BTW, on the metal, it is such a nice cameo, it is not likely to have been set in silver plate, something rarely seen at all, even with shoddy cameos. The question is more whether the silver is 925/sterling, which it would be if set in the UK or US, or 800 silver, which is likely if it was set in Italy around the same time it was made.
Whoa, now that is some major sleuthing and one accurate username! Thank you so much, cameosleuth! I guess it was those ivy and berries throwing me off with my lack of knowledge.
Once I get the metal tested I will have to report back. Very interesting!