Topic: The best cameo work?

[kimo]

Thanks to everyone for the links to modern day makers.  I think they are all beautiful and their makers are very talented, but I do not think they truly compare to the art of Emile Galle.  I don't know why modern glass of all kinds leaves me feeling that somehow the secrets of the masters of the past have been lost and never quite 100% recovered, but that is my personal thought.

[Mike M]

Flying free

love your examples - but some have got a lot more going on than just classic cameo techniques. -not that there is anything wrong with that.

M

[flying free]

Mike, yes I know, but that is probably where the attraction is for me
It's not comparing like with like, agreed.
But, the techniques used include cameo and make each object so exquisite.  I suppose I love those pieces that are cameo and ... internally decorated/enamelled etc.
However my blue and white is solely cameo and the use of the layers of glass and I love that also.
m

[Ohio]

At times I believe you have to be realistic & when it comes to cameo or just about anything else...things change & evolve & if they don't then they face extinction. Designs/styles/subject matter/techniques do change over times & its not that any secrets have been lost, its simply changed because what was popular a century ago is certainly not popular now & what is popular now is what sells in the "new" market. Sometimes its easy to forget that the production of just about everything we know is after all tied to a business & when its a business decision then you produce what sells in todays market...not a market a century ago.

[chopin-liszt]

And nobody is prepared these days to pay for the work of master craftsmen, who have to train for donkey's years to attain the level of expertise used in eg. Galle.

Business and profit depends entirely on the lowest posssible quality and the maximum possible price, driving quality down the plughole.

[johnphilip]

Our very own Helen Millards work would keep me happy ,
 

[bat20]

My theory on why the craftsmanship was better in the " old days"is they started training at a much younger age and were a lot less self conscious about what they made.

[flying free]

There is some exquisite contemporary cameo work around I think - complicated, pushing boundaries and beautiful (I just cant' afford any of the major pieces I love, old or new unfortunately).

I do have a big love of old work though.  Partly because they were experimenting with new colours, overlays, the hand carved pieces etc and it was all 'new' developments in techniques, new colours for the glass, new colours for enamels etc.  But along with that, I also covet pieces that will never be made again - the makers are long gone, the colours will not be the same again, they were firsts of their time.  (I feel the same about old textiles and embroidery )

Of course now, it is also new developments of old techniques, and contemporary makers are taking those ideas in  exciting directions as always.  There are a few contemporary pieces I would just love to own.  Maybe one day ...

[scimiman]

Terry L Colledge
See also http://www.terricolledgeglass.com/PortlandVase.html Recreation 2012 recreation of the Roman Vase.

[Ohio]

In the U.S. the vast (and I do mean vast) majority of contemporary cameo produced during the past 30+ years (thousands of pieces) has been by the duo of  Kelsey Murphy and Robert Bomkamp. They started in 1982 under the firm Glass Expectations Inc. then in 1988 moved to Pilgrim glass & when they closed they went to Fenton for several years. They now have a studio in WV called Vision of Heaven, but I think their run is slowly ending as just yesterday there was an auction that stated the largest number of their pieces from their working together was held. They are the undisputed best known contemporary cameo artists in the U.S.  Unfortunately though glass no matter what type is basically ignored by the under 30s crowd & even those in the mid/late 30s to early 40s pay little attention to glass these days.