Jewelry curator and designer Kimberly McDonald was mesmerized the first time she laid eyes on these antique cameos. “I recall walking downstairs into the stock room of my supplier. I was like a kid in a candy store. Boxes upon boxes, some over 100 years old, full of jewelry-making goodness. When he opened the first box and pulled out this absolutely gorgeous tiny piece of artwork, I was speechless. I was surprised to learn that these hand-carved masterpieces had never even been used. They were just sitting patiently in their original boxes, padded with cotton, waiting to be adored.”
As a curator, Kimberly was immediately struck by the rarity - in this day and age - of these virgin, hand carved cameos. “They are very much a collector’s type of item. And to me the history of this supplier’s family is fascinating.”
Kimberly learned that the cameos came from the great grandfather, who lived in Torre del Greco, Italy. He began carving shells from Madagascar, the Bahamas, and other exotic locales in 1862. Cameo carving was part family affair (Bob told her that young carvers would apprentice by creating the basic carved design while the masters would complete the intricate details) and part civic competition (locals would compare their work, and reputations were made by how fine the work of any given artisan was). Later, his son and his nine brothers set up import/export businesses around the world. One of them came to America. It was the early 1900s. They supplied some of the finest jewelers in the country with materials such as coral and cameos, and earned a reputation for excellence. In 1972 the family, opened a jewelry manufacturing business, and in 1987 the company moved to Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
“My favorite painting ever is Ingres’ Grand Odelisque, which is at the Louvre in Paris, where I used to live,” Kimberly comments. “When I saw this first cameo, it reminded me of the Ingres and I couldn’t leave the shop without it. But I wanted to do something modern, a little funky and sexy with it. I wanted to bring Bartolomeo’s cameos to life. Traditionally, you see cameos in yellow gold with pearls, which feels ‘old’ to me. I decided to go with a really crunchy look - brown diamonds of various shades set in 18k white gold and then black rhodium to really give it a nice frame. I think it is chic and still fragile. It honors the artwork of the cameo, and is so complimentary to what women are wearing now. The combination renders these pieces timeless.”
The first pieces in the collection were such a hit that Kimberly returned to secure more cameos because there were only a few of this caliber left, and she knows that once they are gone, they cannot be replaced. “I have a client who is pregnant with twins, she has commissioned the cameo of the mother with twins…I can’t imagine a more special and personalized ‘Push Present’.”
“It’s like wearing a piece of history, a piece of art, a piece of jewelry…all at once. There is something so precious about them. Cameos today are mostly machine cut…that is so unappealing to me. You can feel a little piece of the artist in each one of these miniature masterpieces.”