term+2++Family+artifact

A cameo is a portrait or a scene carved in relief with a contrasting colored background. ** Cameo ** is a method of [|carving] an object. The anonymous woman on a cameo indicates that it comes from the Victorian Era.

http://www.antiquesjournal.com/pages04/archives/cameos.html This site has a picture of a cameo similar to Mrs Charuckyj's.

A cameo [|brooch] is a brooch or pin which is made with a cameo, a special type of carved jewelry which was very popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries. In addition to antique cameo brooches, some of which are quite valuable. A modern cameo brooch often has a pin attached directly to back which can be used to attach it to clothing. Older brooches were suspended from ribbons, which were pinned to garments, and have a loop of metal in their setting through which a ribbon can be run. Typically, a cameo brooch is a portrait of a woman. A cameo is a carving done in relief, and is typically designed so that it has two colors. There are two ways to accomplish this. The first is to use a seashell or stone ,which has natural colored bands. The carving can be artfully designed so that the figure is in a lighter color and the background is darker. A prized souvenir for a Victorian woman was a cameo with her likeness by an Italian carver. While commissioned portraits were popular, another kind of portrait appeared with the anonymous woman. Cameo carvers could fashion such images quickly in shell or lava. Cameos became the most sought after jewel by Queens and Princesses throughout Europe. The industrialization of the Victorian Era made mass production of jewelry possible. The anonymous woman became a common subject for cameos. Carvers could produce these cameos in quick assembly line fashion on shell or a variety of other materials. The anonymous woman was molded into cameos from manmade materials such as glass or celluloid.

Mrs. Charuckyj's family heirloom T his is Mrs Charuckyj's cameo. It was given to her by her mother when Mrs Charuckyj got married in 1973. It was bought for Mrs Charuckyj's mother, Marta, by her husband Andrew, Mrs Charuckyj's father, in 1952. The occasion was the birth of their first child, Christine Hluchanic (Charuckyj.) Mrs Charuckyj wore it many times and then passed it on to her daughter,Liana when Liana turned 25, in 2004.