Oval Double Portrait Cameo Pin/Pendant Combo in 14k Yellow Gold

Two profiles are carved into this oval cameo, one set behind the other. The figure in front has flowers worked through her hair and drapery falling from her shoulder; the second rises past her at the right, further back and cut shallower. The relief is cream and the ground behind it is peach, because the two are the same piece of material — a pale upper layer cut down into a darker one beneath. It is held in a plain, high-polished 14k yellow gold bezel with no engraving or beading to compete with the carving, and there is a hinged bail at the top with a pin fitting on the reverse, so it wears on a chain or on a lapel. 12.50 grams.

Relief carving is unforgiving in a way faceting is not: you are removing material to find the image, so there is no second attempt at a cheekbone. The depth is the whole skill — cut too shallow and the face reads flat, too deep and you break through the pale layer into the dark and the nose turns brown. A double portrait doubles that risk on one blank, and adds a harder problem: the second head has to sit convincingly behind the first, which means carving it at a lower relief without letting it turn into a silhouette. Look at where the two faces overlap and you can see the carver solving it. How many pieces in a case were made without an undo?