ok, a good explanation Kev, thank you.
If for the sake of this thread, we just stick to Cameo work as in the 'traditional' sense of the word with regard to glass cut back to reveal other layers, there is an awful lot of glass from the turn of the century classed as 'cameo' but with the cut back done by acid etching rather than hand carved, but still called Cameo glass. To me it is still cameo glass i.e it reveals a relief image and at least two colours of glass where the image is cut through at least one layer of colour to reveal another. It's just that the technique used to reveal the relief image is not hand carved (most desirable and obviously the hardest technique of them all).
Therefore in my eyes it should perhaps properly be described as Acid Etched Cameo rather than just Cameo.
I guess with Hand Carved Cameo, there is no need to discuss any further as that is unlikely to be improperly described, given the sums of money the good pieces would change hands for.
I'm interested not just because of this paperweight, which started me thinking, but also because of all the 'tip galle' and other similar type pieces around where the process of making them are not described in any detail and which I presume are also acid etched rather than carved.
m