As you may recall, in the wake of last November’s estate jewelry show and sale I was compelled to remark that there were aspects of the collector market that I simply did not understand. Though I did not expand upon my remark at the time, an article on cameos that appeared in a recent “Financial Times” supplement both reawakened and resolved at least some of my puzzlement. The lead line in the article read, “The cameo jewel – until recently deemed staid and matronly – is reborn as a modern style statement . . . .” “Now how had it become a modern style statement,” I wondered, and then went on to read the article and do a little research.

If you’re unfamiliar with them, a cameo is a usually a stone or sea shell that has been carved with an image or scene. The material used for the carving, regardless of its origin, is typically layered so that a color contrast makes the raised image stand out. Interestingly enough, when an image is carved into a stone, below the level of its top, it is an intaglio; and oddly enough, though intaglios and cameos have been around for the better part of five millennia, the names we use to describe them have not. The word “cameo” seems to have appeared in the late Middle Ages without an apparent origin in any of the languages spoken in Europe. Some scholars believe that it may be a corruption of an Arabic term that can be translated as “flower bud”; and this does not seem an unlikely origin for the term given that at that time the Middle East was the source of most of Europe’s gems. “Intaglio” is a lot easier to trace. It and our word “tailor” share a common origin, a “Vulgar Latin” verb meaning “to cut”; but I digress. There was a lot that bothered me about the estate cameos we had on offer. As long as I’ve known the jewelry trade, stone cameos have been more expensive than shell cameos; yet I could see no great distinctions of price being made between shell and stone cameos in the collection we had brought in. Then there were the frames – the actual jewelry – that held the cameos. Modern shell cameos are usually carved by “artists” working in factories where they cut images to standard designs using dental tools. Stone cameos are a somewhat different matter in that the subjects of the carvings are usually more varied. Those who “carve” them, however, use much more of our contemporary technology, including computer controlled lasers, than the humble shell carvers; and as the workman’s hand and mind are removed from his task, it becomes harder and harder to call his work product “art”. No wonder, then, that the frames in which contemporary cameos are set are usually seen as more “important” pieces of jewelry than the cameos they hold. No wonder I was somewhat puzzled by the fact that the frames of those antique cameos seemed to have little bearing on their assigned values; but the “Financial Times” article was enlightening.

To begin with, the cameos that command attention today are hand-carved antiques; and those that are signed or have provenance are most highly valued. It is the art within them that commands attention and does it so completely that the material, stone or shell, of which it is made is of much smaller consequence. In like manner, the frames into which they are set may lack the polished execution of contemporary jewelry; but having been hand fabricated out of sheets of silver or gold, they also stand as statements of the jewelers’ arts. To say that the appeal of these cameos is “romantic” is to belabor the obvious; but to get back to that lead line in the article, one must ask “Who has made it a modern style statement?” As usual, the answer to questions about style may be found in celebrities and fashion houses, in this case JK Rowling, Prada and Valli. In February JK Rowling (author of the “Harry Potter” series) wore a very large cameo ring as she was awarded the French Legion d’Honneur. No one missed its romantic character; and in like manner, declared Vivienne Becker (author of the “Financial Times” article) recent designs by Prada and Valli are so reminiscent of the “frothy femininity depicted on Victorian cameos” that they have a “narrative mood” like that of fine jewelry. So, it seems, it is the romance of art and quality that has revivified the cameo.

Of course there is a narrative implicit in any piece of fine jewelry; and it is connected to beauty. When you give the woman or man you love a gift of jewelry you say, “I love you” as obviously as you would with the written word. When you give him or her the most beautiful of gems, the Hearts On Fire diamond, you say, “I love you,” as perfectly as may be possible. Check out our Hearts On Fire collection on line at hurstsberwynjewelers.com; then phone us at 708.788.0880 for an appointment to explore the unparalleled beauty that is is the world’s most perfectly cut diamond, the Hearts On Fire. We’re Hursts’ Berwyn Jewelers and we’ll help you realize your dreams.