Cameo Cutting

This book explores the discovery of the adaptation of the Conch-shell. In «Cameo Cutting,» John B. Marsh traces the history of the Conch-shell to the art of the Cameo engraver, and to the beginning of Her Gracious Majesty the Queen's reign. Excerpt: «The working of Cameos in precious stones, however, goes back beyond the earliest historical records; history contains no reference to the beginning or progress of the development. Tradition declares that the art was of Asiatic origin and that it was practiced by the Babylonians, from whom the Phœnicians carried it into Egypt. The progress of the work is traced to Greece and Italy, and in our own time to France and England.»