Much curious interest has been excited with respect to the derivation of the word Cameo, and the fact is curious that in that splendid repertory of all things rare, curious, and of interest, “Notes and Queries,” the only references to the Cameo are two in number. One is a question propounded in vol. viii., series iv., page 528, in which a correspondent puts the query, which was never answered, “What is the earliest known example of a shell Cameo?” The second reference occurs in vol. iii., series v., in which the derivation of Cameos is inquired for, and the answer appears in vol. iii., on page 31. Here Mr. F. Chance, Sydenham Hall, after learnedly discussing derivations from the Greek, Italian, Latin, German, and Spanish, winds up by saying with Dundreary, that Cameo is one of those words which “no fellow can make out.”
“The meaning of the word Cameo,” says a writer in the _Housewife_, “is literally a picture of one colour. In an ancient dictionary of arts and sciences, more than a hundred years old, which I have before me, the word is thus spelt and explained:--‘Camaieu or Camehuia, in Natural History, the same with camæa.’ I look up ‘camæa,’ and find the word descanted upon as follows:--‘In Natural History, a genus of the semi-pellucid gems, approaching to the onyx structure, being composed of zones, and formed on a crystalline basis; but having their zones very broad and thick, and laid alternately on one another, with no common matter between; usually less transparent and more debased with earth than the onyxes.’ Species are then described which I need not detail. Returning next to the camaieu, I find:--‘This word is also used to express a stone, on which are found various figures and representations of “landskips,” &c., formed by a kind of _lusus naturæ_, so as to exhibit pictures without painting. It is likewise applied to any kind of gem on which figures are engraven, either indentedly or in relievo.’”
The _Queen_ newspaper referred also to the derivation of the term, and added the following bit of historical research:--
“The term Cameo, in the language of art, is usually applied to gems or stones that are worked in relievo, that is, in which the object represented is raised above the plane of the ground, in contradistinction to intaglio, in which the subject is engraved or indented. The art of ornamenting precious stones with heads and figures is of high antiquity, but it was for the most part confined to intaglio or indenting, an easier process than relieving the work from a ground. Such stones were used for signets or seals in very remote ages by the Etruscans and the Greeks. One of the first names of great note that occurs in this branch of art is that of Pyrgoteles, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and who alone was permitted to engrave seal rings for the King. Tryphon, who lived under the immediate successors of Alexander, also deserves mention here, being the author of a beautiful and well-known Cameo in the Marlborough collection, representing the marriage of Cupid and Psyche.