Cameo of a bust of an African woman, in three-quarter profile to the left, with drapery visible along the neckline. Her hair falls in long loose curls. The face has been left matt and the eyes are polished. It is set within a raised border.

Black Africans were occasionally to be seen in seventeenth-century Europe, but this figure is likely to have been derived from idealised images rather than taken from life.

Text adapted from Ancient and Modern Gems and Jewels in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London, 2008