Carved from shell, with the whole picture living inside 1.27mm of depth. The carver works down through a pale outer layer into the warm orange one beneath, so the profile and the ground behind her are the same piece of shell at different heights.

We took her for what a cameo carries. Before photography, this was how you kept a likeness of someone, which is why cameos turn up in families far more often than they turn up in shops. The oval sits in a gold frame pierced with scrollwork, on 19.75 inches of fine twisted rope chain.