Cameo pin

1850-1860

Measurements

2-1/4 in x 1-3/4 in x 3/8 in

Materials

Probably shell, gold

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation, gift of Barbara Nowland Allison

Accession Number

2012.202

Condition Notes

A five-petaled flower is missing from the right side of the frame.

Provenance

Mary Corbit Wilson to Louisa A Corbit Corbit (1838-1901) to Louise Corbit Lea (1898-1989), grandmother of the donor.

Comments

The oval cameo is set within a gold frame of two twisted strands, one plain and one textured, with four five-petaled flowers affixed to the top and bottom and sides (the right side flower is missing).  The flowers resemble Forget-Me-Nots.  The carved cameo, probably executed in the two-tone layered shell of a conch, shows a neoclassical woman in a scoop-necked gathered bodice wearing laurel wreath and looking to the right.  

The cameo is pinned to a printed card of Mrs. E. Tatnall (Mary C. Corbit) Warner (1848-1923), who gathered and preserved Corbit and Wilson family objects.  On the back of her card, she wrote in pen, “Breast pin of / mothers (Mary W. Corbit) / & worn by Sister when[?] / 18 when her ambrotype / was taken. / For / Louise Corbit Lea”  She wrote in pencil on the front, "“Sister” was / Louisa A. Corbit / daughter of Daniel / & wife of Captain Chas.”

Assuming Mary Warner's identifications are correct, the pin was first owned by Mary's mother.  Louisa, who wore the pin at age 18, was Mary's sister.  Louise Corbit Lea was Louisa's granddaughter, and Louise's granddaughter, Barbara Nowland Allison, donated the pin to the Foundation.  The provenance as outlined skips Eliza Naudain Corbit (1861-1945), but Louisa could have given or bequeathed the pin directly to 3-year-old Louise at the former's death in 1901.  Other objects owned by the Corbits followed this same path of ownership until they, too, were donated by Barbara Allison.