The only mark on it is Sterling, but this beautiful hair pin depicts two Gingko leaves with a bug. It’s made with cloisonne enamel. The colors are gorgeous. It seems very Japonisme to me, so I don’t know if the maker was French or Japanese, but it sold for $275 on September 16. Congratulations to the winner.
My first piece today is actually a British arts and crafts piece by Arthur and Georgie Gaskin, c. 1910. The raised silver-foliage design is bookmarked by pearls. Provenance: Arthur & Georgie Gaskin, City Museum & Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1982, page 87.
This is a spectacular art nouveau diadem of a Byzantine princess. It is French; made of gold, opal, and diamonds; c.1900. Unmarked, it is attributed to Fouquet or Vever.
This is an original Lalique drawing of a comb with two Japanese rhinoceros beetles fighting each other (Thank you to member ch for making this correction). The comb was probably to be made out of horn. Maybe the fighting rhinoceros beetles and their feet, performing the engineering function of holding the chains, would be silver, and the jewels in the dangles would be pearls. What a knockout.
My last piece for this morning is a Lalique pendant, whose centerpiece can easily be taken off and worn in the hair. This piece is so gorgeous, it takes my breath away. The ornament depicts poppies made of glass, enamel, and gold.
This is a lovely example of classic style. Hair comb pairs like this were also called opera combs. The crowns of these are openwork plaques set with about 1.50 carats of European-cut and rose-cut diamonds atop tortoise shell combs.
Eighteenth-century India gives us this next tiara in an unusual hinged form. The openwork decoration depicts three lilies surrounded by stems and foliage.
The last tiara is just a knockout. It’s an English turquoise and diamond tiara, c. 1880, and sold for 27,000 GBP. I want this. :-)
