The Cameo

The cameo, due to its patient and precious workmanship, similar in some respects to that of ivory, immediately suggests an oriental paternity.
A reference far removed from reality, but which nevertheless serves as a clue to the attempt to assign a topos of origin to the cameo, which in its absence would continue to have no homeland.

In fact, 40% of people do not know where a cameo is born. But that's not all.
26% believe it is an engraving on ivory; 25% on hard stones, i.e. onyx, malachite, lapis lazuli, etc.; 1% on mother-of-pearl.

Only ten people out of a hundred indicate coral as the material, which means that shell engraving, with its illustrious historical heritage, is not part of the heritage of knowledge. Yet wherever one has the opportunity to admire a shell cameo, there can be no doubt whatsoever: it was made in Torre del Greco, which has held the monopoly on this engraving for about two centuries.

The cameo, a term of uncertain and disputed origin, indicates in itself a bas-relief made through the engraving on a shell. How and when does this unusual material come into being, which will soon succeed in supplanting coral to the point of monopolizing this type of workmanship?

An era can be identified around 1830, and it is at the beginning of the nineteenth century that we can count the presence of the Greek tower cameos, the work of a handful of Roman artists, expert by ancient tradition in engraving with hard stones.
And perhaps the first experiments to create small bas-reliefs from shell fragments, less resistant to engraving, can be traced back to these years.