Cameo wearing pearls

[aerinha]

This isn't a pearl piece but a few months ago I bought this late 1920s cameo and she is wearing pearls! It shows how important they were at that time with the flappers.

 

[knotty panda]

aerinha: I think you may be mistaken about that not being a pearl piece. Most cameos are MOP carvings. Can you imagine working so delicately? That's a beautiful cameo.

 

[Caitlin]

Cameos can be made from many kinds of layered stone and have been for a couple thousand years. they are also made from shells including some mother of pearl shells.
The above cameo and many others with the same look are made from shell, but not MOP.
The traditional cameo shell of Italy is the flame or bullmouth helmet cassis rufa found on the African coast and commonly called the "carnelian shell" after one of the original cameo stones, the carnelian. Many other shells with 2 layers are also used.

 

[pattye]

It's a lovely cameo! First one I have seen with a flapper vintage female, and it is so quaint and charming.

pattye
so many pearls, so little time

 

[aerinha]

This is definately a shell cameo. The seller told me she was wearing "beads" but to my thinking no one wearing a diamond brooch of that size would wear anything but pearls I love that she is in flapper dress, I explain it to non-jewelry people by saying it's like in 2060 finding a cameo of someone in 1980s punk with a mohawk.