Empress Josephine is credited with initiating the fashion for cameos. Antique gems from the royal treasury were set by her jeweler, Nitot, in the Crown of Charlemagne and in bracelets for the Empress. A portrait of Josephine wearing a parure of cameo jewelry sparked a multinational trend. During the Restoration in France, the fashion died out while in England the trend stayed alive continuing to build. France once again enjoyed cameo jewelry under the rule of Louis Philippe.

Imitations of ancient gem carvings were exceedingly popular with the Georgian and Victorian consumer. The inventory of engraved and carved gemstones of the past was more accessible to Victorian gem carvers than one might think. Catalogues of line drawings depicting famous collections were printed and sold. Plaster casts of these earlier works were circulated among collectors. John Tassie’s glassworks began production of molded replica cameos circa 1791. Nineteenth-century gem carvers had access to classical works as well as those of their contemporaries resulting in a great deal of copying and the creation of untold numbers of replicas. Carvers began to sign their cameos in the mid-eighteenth century in an effort to prevent dealers from selling their work to collectors as antiques.

A third technique, commesso, joined together layers of different materials such as hardstone, coral, and mother-of-pearl, was a French form of gem carving that resulted in a pictorial relief, not a true cameo.

Gem engraving was often the means for a struggling sculptor to make a living. Engravers from all over Europe and America congregated in Rome, the international center of cameo cutting, to produce these small artworks for the tourist trade. As a result, the sculpture and artwork of Rome both contemporary and antique were the subject of many cameos. The production of cameos representing more recent works of art helped propel the desire for cameos firmly into the nineteenth century.

The relative ability to quickly carve shell cameos permitted the artist to use live subjects. Often portrait cameos were produced after a marble bust had been made of the subject. The gem engraver would later copy the bust as a cameo. By this time photography was available to provide subject matter for cameo carvers. To distinguish carvings “from life” the artist would sometimes make that notation on the reverse of the cameo.

Cameos commemorating a marriage or other event could be produced in any quantity. Even if the live subject was available, these commemorative cameos were usually produced from a photograph preventing long tedious sittings for the subjects and the carver could create as many identical cameos as ordered. This made commemorative cameos available to a wide range of society previously unable to afford such a luxury.

Cameos were imported by the thousands into England waiting to be mounted by the many jewelers specializing in cameos. Jewelers often specialized in one type of cameo or another. Antiquities, coral, mosaic, and even different subject matter often went to a jeweler who carried only that specialty. Many unsigned shell cameos were available to be selected by a customer to be mounted to their taste.

Many options for mounting were available. Archeological styles, Etruscan revival, plain gold bezel, framed in gemstones or set in intricately created Renaissance revival enameled frames were available to the customer to complete the piece. Rings, brooches, bracelets, lockets, and pendants could all be set with cameos. Choice of subject, frame style, material and mode of wear made for an unlimited array of cameo jewelry and offered the wearer an excuse to own multiple pieces set with cameos.