Cameo

The tradition of carving images into precious materials dates back thousands of years, and was first used for official portraits and seals . Use of shells for cameos began around the 15th century and peaked in the Victorian era. With shell cameos, the white foreground image appears against a reddish-orange background, whereas in agate cameos, the image has a black background. With either, the timeless beauty of a hand-carved cameo is a truly classic fashion accessory.