What is a Cameo?

A cameo is a brooch, ring or other piece of jewellery that has a carving in relief and where both background and raised carving are designed from layers of contrasting colours. The use of the type of carving that we associate with the cameo, has been around for thousands of years, and was used to great effect by the Ancient Greeks. Although the cameo has a long history, the modern notion of the cameo as an item of jewellery was made extremely popular by Queen Victoria. You may have a cameo brooch or ring that has been passed down through your family and could, therefore, be quite valuable. Since the industrial age it has been possible to make much cheaper, imitation cameo jewellery. The figure on a cameo brooch or cameo ring is usually the profile of a woman, but there are still cameos depicting flowers that were very popular towards the end of the Victorian period.

A typical cameo is carved from shell or stone and is usually two colours; this is most easily done in shell or stone because they tend to have bands of different colours. Most cameos carve the relief, or the woman in a lighter colour than the background of the piece. There are some carvers who will enhance the colours of their cameo with dye or bleach. Yet another way to bring more colour to a cameo is to design it with two different stones or with glass. Coloured glass cameos were very popular at the end of the Victorian era because mass production meant that many more ordinary women could own one.

Cameos, from Victoria to the Present Day

Although there are different types of cameo jewellery, the one that was popularised in the Victorian era was the cameo brooch and it has come to be seen as the classic form of cameo jewellery. The brooch was easy to wear because it had a silver loop as part of its setting which allowed it to be pinned to the dress or a (typically velvet) ribbon was run through the loop and worn around the neck. Some of the Victorian brooches were set in gold rather than silver and carved from shell, green lava, pink coral and angelskin coral.

The cameo brooch appears to have risen and fallen from favour only to rise again in various periods throughout history. Today women and girls are searching through drawers and cupboards to see if they still have a cameo brooch or ring that belonged to their mother as the cameo is back in style. If there are no heirlooms then women will be looking for modern day cameos, these are often carved from agate and the colours are just as likely to be black and white as delicate pink or coral. Generally speaking the layers of the modern cameo are such that the artist can remove some material so that the background colour shines through, making the carving appear in even greater relief.

Cameos can be made from various different materials including; Hardstone, Coral, Lava, Ivory and in some cases precious or semi precious stones.