695 Euros and 5 days to go. 12 bidders. This is an Empire comb with 9 glass pearl beads atop a silver gilt tiara with flowers. The flowers have blue enamel centers and real-pearl petals. It has a rooster hallmark, and was made in Paris, c. 1798 – 1809. Provenance: “Yves Markezana – Taps French gold, silver, platinum from 1275 to the Present (ISBN 2-85101-103-0), page 89.”
If only I had the money… I would so wear a comb like this. This is why I need to learn jewelry making; so I can make my own hair combs!
Problem is, Bem02, learning to make your own is not going to help you save any money.
It would cost you far more today to recreate this comb and the quality of the materials available – the gold, pearls, etc. – will not be to the same high degree you have in this amazing piece.
I’m thinking a second mortgage. With my luck, I’d go into serious hock, buy the comb and the first day I wore it, it would drop onto the garage floor and break when I was taking out the garbage that morning. :o(
I have to say, that if I made my own, I probably wouldn’t use real gold or pearls. But I get ideas for the things or what ‘subject’ should be on the comb.
And some of the old combs can break even if you don’t wear them. I’ve got an old plastic comb that went brittle. It’s lovely, but I can’t wear it anymore.
Also if I made my own, I’d worry less about dropping and breaking them. (I do my own hairsticks sometimes.)
LMAO. A second mortgage. Well, in this environment with every consumer protection taken away (in the US), I wouldn’t buy a private, uninsured financial product for anything in this world. I’ll look at the blog pictures. :-)
But ye, I keep my antiques under glass. Wearing them is out of the question. I wear Longlocks Hair Sticks. In fact, the first conversation I had with Susan was, “Oh, these are great! I want to make my own!” So Susan patiently took me through the whole process of collecting the beads, drilling this, doing that, and 45 minutes later, that idea went into the garbage, which I’d fall while taking out of the garage, too, and break something. :-)
Susan’s stuff is lovely!
And you got to have a lesson from her, that is so cool.
I’ve painted my own sticks and that is time consuming.
Sometimes this happens with ebay auctions. People bid it up early, and decide the price is high enough. So those who had higher snipe bids delete them, and the final price is decided at the very beginning because the group of bidders has decided not to get into a war to value the comb ridiculously. They feel they have already done that. 695 euros is an excellent price for this comb.