Shell used to show the process of cutting a shell cameo thumbnail 1
Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Sculpture, Room 111, The Gilbert Bayes Gallery

Shell used to show the process of cutting a shell cameo

Shell
1850-1890 (carved)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This six-step series by James Ronca was made in about 1850-90 to illustrate the preparation of a shell cameo portrait from its earliest state, the shell itself, with a section for the cameo removed, to the finished portrait of John Everett Millais, the pre- Raphaelite painter. Intermediate stages demonstrate how the carver cut a rough blank and sketched on the shell a pencil outline of the portrait. Outer layers of the shell were then partially stripped away and the profile cleared right to the ground (the bottom or inside layer of the shell). In the final state, fine details such as hair are silhouetted against the dark polished ground, while portions of the upper layer are retained to give colour and relief to the head. As well as being clearly instructive, the series is a virtuoso example of nineteenth-century shell cameo carving and shows how the more experienced carvers in the medium could produce work of a quality rivalling that of the more costly and prestigious hard-stone cameos.

While a gemstone cameo was far harder to cut than a shell cameo, the basic principle was the same. The engraver, using chisels, drills and abrasives, worked inwards from the surface of the blank, retaining or removing material until the subject slowly emerged. Layers of contrasting colours occurring naturally within the chosen stone or shell would be skilfully used to create the image.

James Ronca (1826-after 1908), a carver of cameos in hard stones and shell, who had for thirty years produced the cameo portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that were mounted in the Royal Victorian Order, the Queen's personal award.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleShell used to show the process of cutting a shell cameo (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Carved Bull's mouth shell
Brief description
Process set, bull's mouth shell, showing the making of a Shell Cameo of the Artist John Everett Millais, by James Ronca, England, ca. 1850-90
Physical description
Bull's mouth shell with a section removed to demonstrate the cutting of a shell cameo.
Dimensions
  • Height: 12cm
  • Width: 9.1cm
Credit line
Given by the artist
Summary
This six-step series by James Ronca was made in about 1850-90 to illustrate the preparation of a shell cameo portrait from its earliest state, the shell itself, with a section for the cameo removed, to the finished portrait of John Everett Millais, the pre- Raphaelite painter. Intermediate stages demonstrate how the carver cut a rough blank and sketched on the shell a pencil outline of the portrait. Outer layers of the shell were then partially stripped away and the profile cleared right to the ground (the bottom or inside layer of the shell). In the final state, fine details such as hair are silhouetted against the dark polished ground, while portions of the upper layer are retained to give colour and relief to the head. As well as being clearly instructive, the series is a virtuoso example of nineteenth-century shell cameo carving and shows how the more experienced carvers in the medium could produce work of a quality rivalling that of the more costly and prestigious hard-stone cameos.

While a gemstone cameo was far harder to cut than a shell cameo, the basic principle was the same. The engraver, using chisels, drills and abrasives, worked inwards from the surface of the blank, retaining or removing material until the subject slowly emerged. Layers of contrasting colours occurring naturally within the chosen stone or shell would be skilfully used to create the image.

James Ronca (1826-after 1908), a carver of cameos in hard stones and shell, who had for thirty years produced the cameo portraits of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert that were mounted in the Royal Victorian Order, the Queen's personal award.
Associated objects
Bibliographic reference
Baker, Malcolm, and Brenda Richardson (eds.), A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V&A Publications, 1999.
Other number
1 - series number
Collection
Accession number
1386-1874

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Record createdNovember 11, 2003
Record URL
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