In 1898, Miss Bellhouse got an invitation to the 50th wedding anniversary party of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Rawson. With her invitation came this silver-gilt floral-spray tiara. She saved it in its original box and put it away. The silent moment as she packed it away and closed her drawer, knowing her treasure was safe, stays with me. I bought this from Bath Antiques Online as a private sale for $400 in 2003.
There have been some beautiful things listed recently, and I wanted to feature just a few of them. First is a lovely late Edo kushi whose Mt. Fuji landscape has great perspective and detail. The painting carries over the top edge of the comb. It is shell with gold maki-e, small applied gilt areas, and black lacquer lines. It was a Buy It Now for 435 UKP, and remained unsold.
Next is an early Meiji tortoiseshell comb with beautiful raised gold carvings of a bird in a cherry blossom garden. It sold for $200 on October 18. Seller: webangelpb. Buyer: alain-t, a serious collector. 
From 1850s England, a beautiful Georgian Sterling silver comb with a flower-filled urn at its crest sold for $155.50 on Oct 30. The seller was neatstuffdave. 
Last is a splendid Victorian Sterling hair comb with mythical figures in three cabachons. It has a maker’s mark and sold for $272.59 on Nov. 1. Buyer: myrnatoo, another serious collector. 
I am changing the text on this 18th-Century Edo comb about hemp because of an excellent, edifying comment by msctaiyang, a serious collector of Japanese hair combs. She said, “Regarding the hemp – it has been a medicinal herb in Chinese and Japanese medicine for centuries and to this day the treated seeds are used in many over the counter preparations. It is called Hua Ma Ren (ren means seed) and is used among other things to unblock the intestines. So hemp is really part of Japanese and Chinese culture, but in a much more utiltarian (and sensible) way than here in the States.” The comb is shell with black lacquer and gold paint. Although after seeing the flowers on a Japanese Hibiscus, the artist might have meant those.
This wooden comb is 17th-Century Edo. You can tell by the size, artistic style, and subject. It’s one idea on a large comb canvas is a chimera behind a folding screen.
This ivory comb is being sold as part of a collection of African art at Sothebys. It is from the Baule tribe on the Ivory Coast. Est: $1200. Many times, combs from this tribe and region will be sold on Ebay. When artists represent their culture, they often do mythology and tell the world about their gods. But when I saw this, I thought, this artist must own a parrot.
While the artist is trying to work, her pet parrot (let’s say he’s an amazon named Harry :-) flies in the exact spot where he would have to be paid attention to immediately, her head. Then he pecks at her hair because in his mind, she has to get up and give him a peanut, now now now. The artist, meanwhile, closes her eyes and asks, “God, why me,” as her headache bulges. :-) I fell in love with this comb. 
From 2000 to 2003, Bath Antiques Online was the source for a lot of gorgeous combs. Recently, kamalikat, who bought two of them, resold them on ebay, and I bought them! Here they are.
English Mother of pearl comb c. 1880.Price: $295
English Art Deco comb, apple juice celluloid with purple and orange brilliants. Price: $250. 
Currently, Bath has this beautiful gilt metal French hairpin in the form of a wheat leaf. Price: around $300.
I had to feature this purse. The microbeaded picture shows a girl talking to a peacock on a ballustrade. Not one bead is out of place. The clasp is antique gold filigree with faux Jade and lapis bezel set stones. 12″ long by 9″ wide. Gorgeous. Sale Price: $3,383 on October 20. 
There have been a few beautiful things from ebay auctions, which are worth noting.
This spectacular engraved Sterling silver comb, marked Albert Coles of New York City, New York, sold for $177.50 on October 10, 2006.. Mr. Coles was a silversmith from the 1830s to the 1870s. 
Pictured left: On October 9, 2006, a comb by French art nouveau jeweler Henri Hamm (1867-1961) sold in an ebay live auction for EUR800, approximately $1003.76. It is made of carved blonde horn with a gold-bordered opal, c. 1904. Pictured right: A Henri Hamm comb at the Tadema Gallery. It is also carved blonde horn, inlaid with gold, mounted with demantoid garnets, and sold for between 2,500 and 5,000 British Pounds Sterling. Both are signed H. Hamm, but the person who bought the Hamm comb listed on ebay got a beautiful item for one-fifth the retail price.
A blonde tortoiseshell hairpin with a 14K inlaid gold top, tied in a knot, c.1880, sold for $323 on October 1, 2006. The seller, bubbleking, lists it as being American in origin. Not sure why he thinks that, as most of the combs in this style are English, but maybe. :-) 
Another American-made dark shell hairpin, with gold mount and pearls on top, c.1880, sold for $256.01 on October 10, 2006.
When New York Times columnist Tom Freidman spoke about the global economy, he said, “The world is flat.” In other words, a company can have technical support in Uruguay, architectural drawings designed in Sweden, sales people in California, the world is flat, he said. And that’s the way I feel about this blog. There is no historical period, no country, no price, no place of sale that makes any difference to me when I choose a comb to feature.
For example, the Chinese ivory bird comb that sold for $350 on ebay is just as beautiful to me as a comb sold at a major auction house, with all their snobby cachet. The main difference between them is that most of the combs sold on ebay are not listed in literature and not signed by the great artists who changed history. But all exquisite art is a beautiful treasure it would lift any of our spirits to own.
I started this blog because I feel hair combs have been treated by many dealers as the miscellaneous throwaway items of estate sales. They are not. Combs exist in every single period of history in every part of the world and are serious works of art. Comb lovers can sit at the same table with any collector. We are not second-class collecting citizens, and that’s what I really want to say with this blog.
Thanks for all the lovely comments!
Best,
BarbaraAnne
I guess our journey is taking us from the stunning frieze-like ivory carvings of Medieval France to the free-form celebration of nature in France at the turn of the century.
. These combs have been documented in Michael Koch, The Belle Epoque of French Jewellery 1850-1910.
Rene Lalique: Art-Nouveau horn, pink sapphire, and gold hair comb, c. 1902: Final Sale Price: $38,400. “The wide rectangular horn comb is surmounted by a curvaceous openwork floral design of gold leaves and stems, with cabochon pink sapphire berries, mounted in gold.” I think the reason the pussy willow Lalique in an earlier post is $330,000 is because he made that one with his own hands. These might have been made for his company. 
Georges Fouquet: mother-of-pearl and gold comb, probably from a design by Charles Desrosiers. However, in one book the maker is listed as Aristide-Lionel Le Couteux. Fouquet could have been the retailer, c. 1905: Final Sale Price: $33,600. “Designed as an iridescent pink, green and blue mother-of-pearl fan-shaped panel, enhanced by textured 18k gold organic rays with three baroque pearl accents, to the tortoiseshell comb, with French assay mark and maker’s mark. Signed G. Fouquet.” 
Rene Lalique: horn, topaz, diamond, and gold hair comb, c. 1902: Final Sale Price: $21,600 “Composed of a rectangular horn plaque, carved as four dragonflies with gold thoraxes, enhanced by a rose-cut diamond and gold bar, set with rectangular-cut brown topaz, to the horn comb in a Lalique beige suede fitted case. Signed Lalique for René Lalique.” 
Charles Boutet de Monvel: Mother-of-pearl, peridot, and tortoiseshell comb, c. 1900: Final Sale Price: $24,000 “Composed of a mother-of-pearl oyster shell, centering upon a serpent set with peridots and green paste, with a cushion-cut citrine head and two cabochon ruby eyes, to the tortoiseshell comb, mounted in silver. Signed Boutet de Monvel for Charles Boutet de Monvel “
The H comb, with tines for thick hair on one side and thin hair on the other, is one of the comb’s earliest known forms. The art was in the H, and the form can be found in all cultures. H combs are still made today in Turkmenistan, and you can see one from time to time on ebay. The H casing is silver or gold plate with gemstone cabachons in the middle.
However, today, I want to talk about the H combs of 15th-century France. They were liturgical with elaborate, stunning carvings of the Adoration of the Magi, and were made from ivory and wood. They were made when the Church ruled art and music and followed the progression from sacred to secular as the Medieval Period gave way to the Renaissance. You can only find them in museums.
St. Albans, Peigne liturgique en ivoire, c. 1120. Used in religious ceremonies, the carving represents the Massacre of Innocents, Adoration of the Magi. From the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Annonciation – Adoration des Mages, ivory, 15th Century, Anonymous, The Louvre, Paris.
Liturgical combs were also made of wood, some with mirrors in the middle or ivory inlay.. The wood appears to be about 1/2 inch thick in the middle, tapering to 1/8 at the tips of the teeth. These 15th Century combs reside in The Musée National du Moyen Age – Thermes de Cluny.
In the late 15th century, you start to see secular decorations in the H combs, as with these three examples:
Lovers in a Garden, French, Ivory, Anonymous, from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Ivory comb with two jousting swordsmen, France, from the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid.
Ivory Comb, openwork, France, 16th century, from the Fundación Lázaro Galdiano in Madrid.
