Antique jewelry glossary

Welcome to our extensive antique jewelry glossary with around 1,500 jewelry related entries.If you feel you are missing an explanation, feel free to let us know and we will add it.

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Double cameo

A cameo have carved relief decoration on both sides of the same stone, e.g. an Italian onyx cameo, c. 1520-30, with on one side a carved bust of Hercules cut in blue stratum, and on the other side a carved bust of Omphale cut in white/brown strata, given c. 1530 by Emperor Charles V to Pope Clement VII who gave it to the Piccolomini family (it was probably set originally as a pendant).

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson