I’m not one of these buyers who thinks things over. If I fall in love, it’s immediate, and I buy the piece. I haven’t bought a hair comb in a long time, but this Auguste Bonaz had my name on it. By the shape of the comb itself, this is a 1940’s piece. Underneath the comb, I’ve included an ad for Bonaz combs in 1944 so you can see the same-shaped comb.
The setting of gems is profound meditation. How can a tiara or crown give its wearer the verisimilitude of God on Earth? Rene Lalique couldn’t care less. He transformed the appearance of jewelry with new themes. Combining French Symbolist philosophy with ideas from Japanese art, he incorporated gem setting into raptors’ claws in this comb,…
by the Creative Museum: From the Fourteenth Century, Dieppe sailors docked their boats on the coast of Guinea to collect ivory. Instead of selling their precious raw material to Paris workshops, they learned to carve great works of art themselves and kept the profit. The bindweed flowers carved onto this ivory diadem are hinged to…
I am honored to announce that the founders of The Creative Museum have joined me to become authors on this blog. The museum’s extraordinary collection includes magnificent works from Africa, North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the South Sea Islands, and also spans centuries. Just as it took a world-class collector’s eye to gather…
I had to do it. :-) Sothebys had an auction of royal tiaras in Switzerland. I chose three tiaras and a coral parure to share with everyone. I can’t pick which one is my favorite.This emerald and diamond tiara, c. 1870, was formerly the property of a Belgian Princess. The octagonal, step-cut, and hexoganal emeralds…
Three stunning way-too-expensive pieces are selling on E-bay. They come from different worlds. Looking at them, I feel like I’m in a historical conference in an imaginary United Nations. The first piece is a back comb from the French Empire’s Eugenie period, c. 1860. A blue enameled center sets off two sides of gilt-bronze scrolls,…
There is an auction coming up of a Lucien Gaillard hair comb at invaluable.com. The link. Bidding starts at €500, with an estimate of €500 – €600. Perhaps the valuation comes because of its condition. Diagonal striations show in the horn above the tines from the right to the middle of the comb. The inside…
haha…i had that one saved, but it didn’t look that old to me, so i was thinking it over…
a couple of years ago, i bid on a almost neon green comb with the peigne josephine balls at the top, and paid only $17. i about fell over when i got the comb in the mail and saw the auguste bonaz signature on the back. $17?! i ended up selling the piece for much, much more and according to the buyer, it’s now in a museum in france.
don’t you just loved surprises like that though??
congratulations to you; good purchase. =) it’s a pretty one!
$17?!?!? and it’s in a French museum????? Oh My GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I bought this little ivory comb on ebay for like $24. Search google images on “museum comb,” and you’ll see a drawing in the Victoria and Albert Museum by Lalique for a comb they say was never made, but would have been made in ivory. So there I saw my comb. It has a Japanese signature on the back. Maybe a Japanese artist made it from the drawing, but that was exactly what I bought for $24! I wrote to V&A, but never received a reply. Search this blog on My Little Mystery, or Mystery, or Lalique, and you’ll probably find the post.