Cameo of a lady

c.1560

probably Italian

Queen Caroline(?); possibly first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1763

Cameo of a bust of a widow, in profile to the right. She wears an elaborate low-necked bodice with a high collar. A veil formed into a widow’s peak covers her tightly curled hair and falls down her back. Wax along the edge of the mount, to the top right, may indicate that the cameo was set in an existing mount that had to be filled out.

There has been much speculation as to the identity of the lady. An 1872 inventory of gems at Windsor Castle identifies the sitter as Mary, Queen of Scots. ...