Jewel of a show

By Alma Gaul / QUAD-CITY TIMES

To the untrained eye, a cameo might look like a colorful oval with a white face pasted on top.

Reality is more complex.

Cameos are shells or stones that are carved in such a way that the raised design -- commonly a head in profile -- is in a layer of different color from the background. In other words, a cameo is all one piece, with the color difference created by the material itself, as revealed by the carver. That is one of the interesting facts about jewelry you can learn from Diane Davidson, of Davidson's Antiques, Moline, whose specialties include women's jewelry from the Victorian era (about 1840 to 1900) to the mid-1940s. You can see some of this jewelry -- maybe even buy some -- on Friday-Sunday, when an Antique Spectacular show and sale is held at the QCCA Expo Center, Rock Island, drawing dealers from across the country.

In addition to cameos and other items from the Victorian era, Davidson sells Bakelite necklaces and bracelets from the 1940s and signed-by-the-designer costume jewelry. Related items include purses, hat pins, perfume bottles and face powder compacts.

Cameos made of seashells are more common than those made of stone because shells are softer and easier to carve, Davidson says. Because of the difficulty in carving, stone cameos usually are smaller.

Some faces on cameos are actual people; a person posed for the carving just as he or she would have for a painting, Davidson says. Most subjects are women, but Davidson has seen a few men and some scenery, including a popular motif called Rebecca at the Well.

Cameos still are made today, primarily in Florence, Italy, but the quality is not as high as those made years ago, she says.

Most cameos are found in sterling silver instead of gold settings because that made them more affordable. "Gold settings are hard to find," she says. "People couldn't afford both the cameo and gold."

To check the quality of a shell cameo, hold it to the light to detect cracks and look for a pretty face. If an artist wasn't very skilled, the nose tended to get long and the chin, pointed.

Most jewelry from the Victorian period is small-scale, not showy, primarily because women were smaller and a little jewelry went a long way, she says. In addition to cameos, another Victorian item that's popular nowadays is a watch slide. This is a small jeweled piece about the size of your little fingernail that allowed a watch chain to slide up and down.

Nowadays people will buy an entire chain just for the slide, which they will remove and have made into a bracelet with 15-18 other slides, Davidson says. While jewelry of the Victorian era has a serious feel to it, jewelry from the 1920s is fun and funky.

Examples include bracelets, necklaces, even spring-loaded cigarette holders made of Bakelite, a forerunner of plastic that gets a patina with age. Women are Davidson's primary customers. Some pieces are bought for a collection -- say, a series of beaded purses hanging on a wall, or an arrangement of face powder compacts on a dresser -- and, in the case of jewelry, to actually wear.

"You won't walk into a room with another woman wearing the same thing," Davidson says.