Lasers were invented in the 1960’s, so there were no laser cut cameos in the 1920’s or 30’s. Shell cameos are hand carved same way they did them since Roman times. The Blue Jasper modern ones made in Germany are laser cut.
Before the lasers they did have machines that would cut some of the designs out. I saw an article showing how to tell if it were hand carved or not. The article explained sometime past the 1920's a lot were machine made for the costume jewlery industry.
I agree with Lady Silvia. She’ll cameos produced today in Italy are still hand carved. Hard stone such as agates and corals are hand carved by electric powered engraving tool.
Thank you so much! This was very informative! I love your descriptions...ponytail girl 😂. Shiz 😅 I am a newbie collector. It's fun learning about them.
From what I understand, unless cameos are set in real gold, they are considered "costume jewelry." That includes cameos made of stone or shell. I have two shell cameos, most likely early 20th century. One is set in silver with black rhinestones and the other is set in brass. They are lovely and I wear them occasionally. One faces left, which is rather unusual. (Edit: I just looked closely at them and one is made with a machine. I can see the fine straight lines.)
Thanks for sharing knowledge with us! I love cameos as well, and even though your collection may not contain the really high-end pieces, it's still a beautiful collection of genuine hand-carved shell cameos. For most of us, collecting cameos that cost in the thousands is simply not possible, and the more affordable kind of cameos that you have collected still have value and beauty as hand-made works of art.
Your collection certainly isn't crap! There are some beautiful pieces there. Just because there are masters who made wonders in hard stone and gold settings, doesn't mean the artistry of the shell cameos are any less. In fact, I've seen a lot of shell cameos with vastly more skillful and detailled carvings than stone ones. It's just like how there's plenty of amazing silver jewellery, even though it isn't worth as much as gold or platinum. I hope you're still enjoying cameos! I'm actually going to try and start carving myself.
I'm a rock hound too. You would probably love to see my collection of over 1,000 specimens. Thanks for the correction. For some reason I love pronouncing it "Ag Gate" and will still do so. It's no fun to pronounce it "A Get". Must be my darn New Yawk accent that prevents me from saying it correctly, lol 🤣😂
