CAMEOS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3223, 28 October 1881, Page 4

CAMEOS.

Borne ia now the chief seat of the art of catneo-outting, two of which are those cut in hard stone and those cut irj ehell. The stones most valuable for thin purpose are the oriental onyx, provider they have the different colors in parallf' layers. The value of the stone is greafclv increased for this purpose if it has four or five different colors in parallel if thr layers are so thin as to assist in mating tho device of the cameo. For example, a specimen of stone, whioh has four layers, max be useful for a cameo of Minerva, where theground would be a dark grey, the face light, the buet and helmet brown or grey. All ■uch cameoe are wrought by a .lapiclai'y's lathe with pointed instruments of steel, anil by means of diamond dust. Shell cameos are cut from largo shells found on the; African and Brazilian coasts, and generally; ehqw two layers, one white, and the a pale coffee-color or deep red orange. Thp' subject is cut with small steel chisels out of the white portion of the shell. Stone*, adopted for cameo-cutting are dense, thick • and consist generally of three layers of, different coloured shell material.