✅ SOLVED Carved shell with uppity folks ?

[tamrock]

I got this 2-1/4" x 1-3/4" oval mollusk shell cameo on the road at a junk shop for $5.43. It is a hand carved piece unmounted, which it was most likely mounted in a precious metals frame once, but someone saw the value in the scrap and discarded this cameo, maybe?. I thought it would be interesting to research on the story behind it and I also admire the skill and workmanship of the piece.

Here's my take on who the woman might be and that is maybe Mary of Teck b.1867 d.1936 The fella on the right might be her husband King George V b.1865 d. 1936. Still that's just a guess of my effort to look at photos of various aristocracies in the time frame I believe this cameo was produced. The fella on the left I'm not sure as he's wearing a fez hat and has his left hand tucked in a Napoleonic way of his coat. Is he French or maybe an important Moroccan or North African figure?

I'm believing it celebrates a particular event with Moto of "GOD DEFENDS THE RIGHT"

Good luck and thanks for any efforts to bring light on what this may signify if anything?.

 

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[DCMatt]

The Crimean War (1854-56), in which France, England and Turkey formed an alliance against the Russian Empire, was a popular source for Staffordshire figures. In this group, Sultan Abd-ul-Medjid (Turkey), Queen Victoria (England) and Emperor Napoleon III (France) stand shoulder to shoulder, clasping hands.

 

[tamrock]

Thanks a bunch Monsieur Matt. When I first saw it I was thinking was this Her Majesty Queen Victoria in the middle. I think that awesome it's her. I guess I'll celebrate my find with one of my favorite songs I listen to when I'm clipping down a fast moving freeway.

 

[randazzo1]

That is a gorgeous sardonyx shell cameo with an unusual theme! What a steal!

 

[Kray Gelder]

The detail on that piece is amazing! A very skilled artisan created that. Great find!

 

[tamrock]

That is a gorgeous sardonyx shell cameo with an unusual theme! What a steal!

Thanks! I wasn't sure what type of shell it was made from. This find also lead me to some interesting research also. If you asked me what I knew on the Crimean war two days ago, I'd have to say I knew very little of it.
https://www.globalgemology.com/cameos.html

 

[tamrock]

As I've done a little looking online of this piece, I found it signifies what was known as the Triple Alliance of England, France and Turkey. This image on this cameo looks to be fashioned after a medallion commemorating this alliance during the Crimean War. Other interesting facts of this war are it's considered to be the first of modern warfare and also a first major conflict to be documented with photography. I'm unsure if this cameo is of the period of the war and worn by someone who supported the alliance of time or it was later produce to commemorate the event? Either way it opened up a bit of history for me I've never really cared to read up on before.

 

[gunsil]

Cannons to the left of me, cannons to the right, cannons in front of me volleyed and thundered, into the jaws of death, into the gates of hell rode the brave 600.

 

[tamrock]

Ah! I didn't know it, but we have a poet
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade