Cameo Jewelry: In Shell Cameos, Figure and Ground Are One

Name: Cameo materials in eight museum records, with how each was made where a source says
Creator: Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

By Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer Published 27 October 2026

Build card

Key construction point: In a shell cameo such as The Met's brooch of about 1835, the white figure and the brown ground are one piece of shell; Wedgwood's jasper relief used moulds [1][4]

Name, category, period, materials, surviving examples and screen swatch

Name: Cameo, a gem or relief whose figure stands raised; the intaglio is the sunk opposite, and Wedgwood's 1787 catalogue lists Cameos and Intaglios as one class [4]
Category: Jewelry Anatomy
Period: Cameos on this page are dated by museum records from 14–37 (a Roman cameo) to 1870 [2][7]; catalogues of 1787 (Wedgwood) and 1791 (Raspe and Tassie), documentary [4][5]
Materials: As each record states: helmet-conch shell, gold and enamel, 2000.562 [1]; carved shell, 42.1193 [3]; sardonyx with gold mount, 1982.60.392 [6]; onyx, white on black, 42.210 [7]; helmut-conch shell (so spelled), seed pearls and gold, 2008.5.8 [8]; stoneware (jasperware), 1962.450 [9]; black basalt ware, 48.2387 [10]; glass paste, B2001.2.361 [11]
Surviving examples: The Met 2000.562 (shell cameo brooch, circa 1835) [1]; Walters 42.1193 (shell cameo, ca. 1550–1575) [3]; The Met 1982.60.392 (sardonyx cameo, late 18th or early 19th century) [6]; Walters 42.210 (onyx cameo, 1870) [7]; Walters 2008.5.8 (Cameo Pendant, helmut-conch shell, 1860–1869) [8]; Art Institute of Chicago 1962.450 (jasperware cameo, late 18th century) [9]; Walters 48.2387 (black basalt cameo, late 18th century) [10]; Yale Center for British Art B2001.2.361 (Tassie glass-paste portrait, 1780) [11]
Screen swatch: Not applicable. This page shows no historical color swatches; its diagrams use site screen colors, not the colors of any shell or stone

This card as data: cameo-build-card.csv (CSV) · file notes (JSON): where the values come from, version and license

Data: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access data (CC0): 2000.562, 1982.60.392; Walters Art Museum catalogue data (CC0): 42.1193, 42.210, 2008.5.8, 48.2387; Art Institute of Chicago collection data (CC0): 1992.297, 1962.450; Yale Center for British Art collection data (CC0): B2001.2.361; Josiah Wedgwood, Catalogue of Cameos, Intaglios, Medals, Bas-Reliefs, Busts and Small Statues, sixth edition (Etruria, 1787), public domain (facts restated); R. E. Raspe, A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, cast by James Tassie (London, 1791), public domain (facts restated)

A shell cameo brooch, American, about 1835: a white profile portrait on a brown ground, framed in gold with a black enamel band lettered THE UNION IT MUST AND SHALL BE PRESERVED (The Met, 2000.562).

"Cameo" by George W. Jamison; William Rose — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameo_MET_DP167073.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Pattern pieces 5 sections

1How can one shell show two colors?
2What are cameos made of?
3Were Wedgwood cameos carved?
4How does an intaglio differ from a cameo?
5How is a cameo set in a brooch?

On a shell cameo of about 1835, a white profile rises from a brown ground [1]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records the brooch as helmet-conch shell, gold, and enamel; the gold and enamel are its frame, so the portrait and the ground are one piece of shell in two colors [1]. A carved cameo works that way: the figure is left standing in relief, and in layered material the ground beneath it can be another color [2][3]. Josiah Wedgwood's jasper cameos, listed in his catalogue of 1787, put white figures on colored grounds by another route, with models and moulds [4].

How can one shell show two colors?

A cameo's figure stands above its ground. Wedgwood's catalogue calls such work "raised figures" [4]. In layered stone, figure and ground can also differ in color. The Art Institute of Chicago describes its Roman cameo of Tiberius, dated 14–37, as cut from a stone banded brown and white, so the emperor shows up against the dark ground; its record names the stone as sardonyx [2].

Shell gives the same result. The Walters Art Museum catalogues a battle-scene cameo of about 1550–1575 simply as "carved shell" [3], and on The Met's brooch the white portrait stands on a brown ground of the same helmet-conch shell [1]. By 1791 at least one shell cameo had been cast as a copy: Rudolf Erich Raspe's catalogue of James Tassie's casts lists "A Shell Cameo" from Tassie's own collection, no. 4348 [5].

Two-layer cameo in section: before cutting, a pale layer on a darker one; after, a figure in the pale layer on a dark ground — A two-color cameo in section, drawn from general construction: before cutting, a pale layer on a darker one; after, the figure stands in the pale layer and the ground is cut down to the darker one. Not to scale; screen colors.
Diagram: Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, CC BY 4.0
Full credit line, to copy
"A two-color cameo in section, before and after cutting" by Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, from https://tailorweaverjewelerdyer.com/jewelry/cameo/. Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Data: Drawn for this page from general construction; the two-layer principle as described by the Art Institute of Chicago for cameo 1992.297

In the drawing the cut stops where the two layers meet, so the figure's outline is also the edge of the pale layer.

A carver's bench with rough, uncarved shell blanks, slender gravers, a small jar and an oil lamp — *A cameo carver's bench with shell blanks and gravers, before any figure is cut.*
Illustration: Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer. Generated schematic image — not a photograph or historical record. Reuse terms: may be shared with this full caption and a link to the source page; not licensed under CC BY.

What are cameos made of?

The records read for this page name shell, layered stone, two kinds of Wedgwood ware and glass paste. The Met's satyr head, probably Italian and of the late 18th or early 19th century, is sardonyx in a gold mount [6]. The Walters records a cameo of 1870 after Ingres's La Source as onyx, "white on black" [7].

Bearded satyr head in high relief, pale on a dark ground, in a gold rim; late 18th or early 19th century; The Met 1982.60.392 — *A satyr's head in sardonyx, probably Italian, late 18th or early 19th century, in a gold rim: the pale head stands in high relief on a darker ground (The Met, 1982.60.392).*
"Cameo with the Head of a Satyr" by Unknown maker — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameo_with_the_Head_of_a_Satyr_MET_DT7188.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Material, as recorded	How made, per the source	Example	Date
Helmet-conch shell, gold, and enamel	Not recorded	The Met 2000.562 [1]	circa 1835
Carved shell	Carved, as recorded	Walters 42.1193 [3]	ca. 1550–1575
Sardonyx with gold mount	Not recorded	The Met 1982.60.392 [6]	late 18th or early 19th century
Onyx, white on black	Not recorded	Walters 42.210 [7]	1870
Helmut-conch shell (so spelled), seed pearls, gold	Not recorded	Walters 2008.5.8 [8]	1860–1869
Stoneware (jasperware)	Models and moulds, per Wedgwood's 1787 catalogue [4]	Art Institute of Chicago 1962.450 [9]	Late 18th century
Black basalt ware	Not recorded	Walters 48.2387 [10]	late 18th century
Glass paste	Wax model, then moulded and cast, per Raspe 1791 [5]	Yale Center for British Art B2001.2.361 [11]	1780

cameo-materials.csv (CSV, cameo-materials.csv) · file notes (JSON): where the values come from, version and license Data: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Open Access data (CC0): 2000.562, 1982.60.392; Walters Art Museum catalogue data (CC0): 42.1193, 42.210, 2008.5.8, 48.2387; Art Institute of Chicago collection data (CC0): 1962.450; Yale Center for British Art collection data (CC0): B2001.2.361; Josiah Wedgwood, Catalogue of Cameos, Intaglios, Medals, Bas-Reliefs, Busts and Small Statues, sixth edition (Etruria, 1787), public domain (facts restated); R. E. Raspe, A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, cast by James Tassie (London, 1791), public domain (facts restated): the same eight objects, one row each, with the colors where a record names them and the source for every value.

Were Wedgwood cameos carved?

Not from a layered stone. The sixth edition of Wedgwood's catalogue, printed at Etruria in 1787, calls jasper "a white porcelain bisqué" that takes color "through its whole substance," so that "the ground may be made of any colour throughout, without paint or enamel, and the raised figures, of a pure white" (p. 2) [4]. Its cameos, it says, are "accurately taken from antique gems" and from the finest models modern artists could supply (p. 3) [4].

White Apollo with a lyre on a blue jasperware oval, openwork cut steel frame; Wedgwood, 1775/80; Art Institute of Chicago — *A white Apollo with a lyre on a blue ground, in an openwork frame set with faceted studs. The Art Institute of Chicago records it as Wedgwood jasperware in a cut steel frame, 1775/80 (1912.1239).*
"Apollo, Art Institute of Chicago 1912.1239 (photograph DSC09827)" by Daderot — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo,_1775-1780,_Wedgwood_Pottery,_Burslem,_solid_jasper_with_cut_steel_frame_-_Art_Institute_of_Chicago_-_DSC09827.JPG — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

For portraits "in bas relief, in the jasper with coloured grounds," the catalogue asks for models or moulds, with clay models "a fifth part larger than the figure required" (p. 56) [4]. Its closing pages, on ornamental wares generally, say that where a mould is used it "performs but a small part of the work," and undercutting and retouching "with the modelling tools" follow (p. 72) [4]. The 1787 edition falls within the years of women's dress worn in layers, about 1770–1800.

James Tassie got the look of a cameo from glass paste. Raspe's catalogue says Tassie modeled portraits "in Wax, and afterwards moulds and casts in Paste," which "entirely resemble Cameos," and it puts his casts of ancient and modern gems at "above 15,000 articles" (p. lx) [5].

White glass-paste portrait of David Garrick in relief, round dark frame; James Tassie, 1780; Yale Center for British Art — *David Garrick by James Tassie, 1780, glass paste, in a round dark frame (Yale Center for British Art, B2001.2.361). Figure and ground are the same white.*
"David Garrick" by James Tassie — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Tassie_-_David_Garrick_-_B2001.2.361_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Two colors were the hard part to copy. Colored cameos, Raspe writes, "can never shew well" when taken in wax, sulphur, plaster or glass "of only one colour," and different glasses "do not well unite into different strata." Yet he says Mr. Reiffenstein, at Rome, made colored impressions that "can hardly be distinguished from the originals" (p. lvi) [5]. Tassie's Garrick is white on white [11].

How does an intaglio differ from a cameo?

An intaglio reverses the cut. Its design is sunk below a flat surface instead of rising from it. Wedgwood's catalogue describes jasper intaglios with "the intaglio part black, and the flat surface blue and highly polished," made to imitate black and blue onyx and "equally ornamental for rings as for seals" (p. 22) [4].

Cameo and intaglio in section: the cameo figure stands above its ground; the intaglio design is cut below the flat face — *Cameo and intaglio in section, drawn from general construction: the cameo's figure stands above its ground, and the intaglio's design is cut below the flat face. Not to scale; screen colors.*
Diagram: Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, CC BY 4.0
Full credit line, to copy
"Cameo and intaglio in section" by Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, from https://tailorweaverjewelerdyer.com/jewelry/cameo/. Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Data: Drawn for this page from general construction; the contrast as described in Josiah Wedgwood's catalogue, sixth edition (Etruria, 1787), pp. 2 and 22 (public domain)

Feature	Cameo	Intaglio
Where the design lies	Raised above its ground	Cut below a flat surface
In Wedgwood's 1787 catalogue	Raised white figures on a ground colored throughout, p. 2 [4]	A black intaglio part under a flat, polished blue surface, p. 22 [4]
Uses the catalogue names	Rings, lockets, bracelets, snuff boxes, watch keys and chains, buttons, p. 3 [4]	Rings and seals, p. 22 [4]
Example on this page	The Met's shell cameo brooch, about 1835 [1]	The Met's Roman garnet ring, 1st century BC–1st century AD [12]

Roman gold ring with a domed dark red garnet, seen from the side; 1st century BC–1st century AD; The Met 1992.263.10 — *A Roman gold ring with a garnet, 1st century BC–1st century AD. The Met records an intaglio of a bird; from the side, the cut shows only as a notch in the stone (1992.263.10).*
"Ring with intaglio of a bird" by Unknown maker — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ring_with_intaglio_of_a_bird_MET_SF199226310.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

How is a cameo set in a brooch?

Wedgwood's catalogue says its cameos "are set in gold and steel mountings" (p. 3) [4]. Raspe says London jewelers "perhaps" first made Tassie's pastes fashionable "by setting them in rings, seals, bracelets, necklaces, and other trinkets" (p. lx) [5]. On The Met's brooch a gold rim holds the shell inside the lettered enamel band, and a border of gold leaves runs around the outside [1].

Carved cameo brooch in section: cameo on a ledge in a metal rim pushed over its edge; hinge, pin and catch on the back — A carved cameo brooch in section, drawn from general construction: the cameo sits on a ledge, the rim's top edge is pushed over its edge, and hinge, pin and catch sit on the back. Dashed: inferred. Not to scale; screen colors.
Diagram: Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, CC BY 4.0
Full credit line, to copy
"A carved cameo brooch in section" by Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer, from https://tailorweaverjewelerdyer.com/jewelry/cameo/. Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Data: Drawn for this page from general construction

In the drawing, as in a bezel setting on a ring, the rim's top edge leans over the edge of what it holds. The records read for this page do not say whether these brooches are closed behind the cameo, so the drawing marks the back plate inferred.

Since a setting often tells more than the front does about when and by whom a piece was made, this site reads jewelry from the back. The Walters records the name H.M. Corbin inscribed on the back of each of three shell cameos in a necklace of 1860–1869, catalogued as a cameo pendant [8]. It also records a maker's mark, "Wedgwood & Bentley," on the reverse of a black basalt cameo lettered Addison [10].

Cite this page

Tailor, Weaver, Jeweler, Dyer. “Cameo Jewelry: In Shell Cameos, Figure and Ground Are One.” Published 27 October 2026. https://tailorweaverjewelerdyer.com/jewelry/cameo/. Accessed: add the date you read it.

Sources

1The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cameo," American, circa 1835, helmet-conch shell, gold, and enamel, brooch, 2000.562 (Purchase, Susan and Jon Rotenstreich Gift, 2000). Catalogue data row on the Wikimedia Commons file page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameo_MET_DP167073.jpg (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
2Art Institute of Chicago. "Cameo Portraying Tiberius," Roman (cameo) and Italian or French (mount), 14–37 (cameo), 1525–1550 (mount), gold, sardonyx, enamel, and pearl, 1992.297. Catalogue record and description. https://www.artic.edu/artworks/119273 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0) and catalogue description (CC BY 4.0), read in full; the description is paraphrased, not quoted) License: CC BY 4.0 (catalogue description); other catalogue data CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
3Walters Art Museum. "Cameo with Battle of the Israelites and the Amalekites," ca. 1550–1575, carved shell, 42.1193. https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.1193 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
4Josiah Wedgwood. Catalogue of Cameos, Intaglios, Medals, Bas-Reliefs, Busts and Small Statues; with a General Account of Tablets, Vases, Ecritoires, and Other Ornamental and Useful Articles. Sixth edition, with additions. Etruria, 1787. https://archive.org/details/catalogueofcameo00wedg (scanned copy of the 1787 sixth edition, read for verification; short quotations)
5R. E. Raspe. A Descriptive Catalogue of a General Collection of Ancient and Modern Engraved Gems, Cameos as well as Intaglios, Taken from the Most Celebrated Cabinets in Europe; and Cast in Coloured Pastes, White Enamel, and Sulphur, by James Tassie, Modeller. London: J. Tassie and J. Murray, 1791. Vol. 1. https://archive.org/details/descriptivecatal01rasp (scanned copy, read for verification; short quotations)
6The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Cameo with the Head of a Satyr," probably Italian, late 18th or early 19th century, sardonyx with gold mount, 1982.60.392 (The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection, 1982). Catalogue data row on the Wikimedia Commons file page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cameo_with_the_Head_of_a_Satyr_MET_DT7188.jpg (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
7Walters Art Museum. "Cameo after La Source, by Ingres," 1870, onyx, white on black, 42.210. https://purl.thewalters.org/art/42.210 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
8Walters Art Museum. "Cameo Pendant," 1860–1869, helmut-conch shell, seed pearls, gold, 2008.5.8. https://purl.thewalters.org/art/2008.5.8 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0); catalogue description paraphrased)
9Art Institute of Chicago. "Cameo," Wedgwood Manufactory, Burslem, late 18th century, stoneware (jasperware), 1962.450 (Gift of Mrs. Robert D. Graff). https://www.artic.edu/artworks/14668 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
10Walters Art Museum. "Cameo of Addison," late 18th century (English), black basalt ware, 48.2387. https://purl.thewalters.org/art/48.2387 (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
11Yale Center for British Art. James Tassie, "David Garrick," 1780, glass paste, B2001.2.361. Museum data row on the Wikimedia Commons file page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:James_Tassie_-_David_Garrick_-_B2001.2.361_-_Yale_Center_for_British_Art.jpg (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))
12The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Ring with intaglio of a bird," Roman, 1st century B.C.–1st century A.D., gold, garnet, 1992.263.10 (Gift of Leon Farber, 1992). Catalogue data row on the Wikimedia Commons file page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ring_with_intaglio_of_a_bird_MET_SF199226310.jpg (collection record (catalogue data, CC0))

Facts here carry numbered links to the sources listed above. How entries are checked: Weighing the Evidence: How This Site Checks Facts. Every substantive change is dated on Corrections. Spotted a mistake or have a better source? Contact and Correspondence.

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