Sculpted in high relief is the mask of a comic slave, with a characteristic megaphone-like mouth. He has large eyes with deeply drilled pupils, a thick arching unibrow and conforming creases on his high forehead. Masks as well as depictions of masked actors were popular subjects for cameos, most typically cut in onyx or sardonyx in order to exploit the color contrasts of the strata of the stone. Very few are cut on monochrome stones, as here (see the carnelian example, no. 77 in Boardman, Engraved Gems, The Ionides Collection).
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Intact, some abrasions and tiny chips to the mask, inlcuding the edge of the mouth and on the sides of the mask; some natural internal veining to the stone.