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End January Book Review by Adrienne Shivers

Title: Cameos - Classical to Costume
Author: Clements & Clements
Published: 1998


General description: Book focuses specifically on cameos of all sorts, all eras and materials

This review will cover several categories and will include a rating for that category 1-10, 1 being 'forget it, 10 being 'must have'. There will also be a short comment about each category and then a general review at the end.

QUANTITY of PICTURES:
Comments: Lots and lots of pictures, loaded with them
Rating: 9.5

QUALITY of PICTURES:
Excellent quality but only fronts are shown, no marks or hallmarks or side views or much close-up details which for cameos would be nice.
Rating: 8.0

QUANTITY of INFORMATION
Comments: Not as much educational info as I would like. There is a history of the cameo and it's evolution in terms of material and motifs. BUT, there's no in depth discussion of subject matter, and since so many cameo depict gods or goddesses, some discussion of identifying these would have been helpful. Each photo is described, but not in much detail. Some note the mythological character depicted, but not many. And, al lot of the date ranges are very broad. And, there's little on how to date cameos, which would be really helpful.
Rating: 6.0

QUALITY of INFORMATION
Comments: Some  vague info but that may be because of the book's age. 8 years ago authors were not nearly as thorough as they are now.
Rating: 7.0


VALUES LISTED:
Comments: One word....ridiculous. Way, way, way high in almost every instance. I don't remember these being accurate for 1998 either. Cameos have dropped a bit in recent years, but not this much. Completely off the chart unrealistitc.
Rating: 1.0

USER FRIENDLY
Comments: I like the way it's organized, but material type. Makes looking up something specific easy.
Rating: 9.0



Total average rating: 6.75
I could go either way on this book....it's a 'why not have', but not a must have, IMO. The variety of cameos is nice, but the values so incredibly unrealistic it offsets that point. I was disappointed in the lack of info on mythology and dating. When I was first learning about cameos, the hardest thing for me was dating and it took me a long time to learn how. I think that sort of info should be mandatory in a book on cameos.
BTW....if you accept the $200-300 values listed for Florenza cameos in this book, go run to my site where I have them for about 1/4 that price. Sheesh.  Nice pictures though. I also would have liked to see more discussion of carving, what makes one better than another. Cameos, at least carved ones (as opposed to molded like glass and plastic) are all about the subject matter and the quality and detail of carving and I didn't see much about that.
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