Monthly Archives: October 2011

Creative Museum: Haute Couture Mercedes Robirosa comb

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Mercedes Robirosa was one of Yves St. Laurent’s favorite models in the late 1960’s and 70’s. Laurent chose Robirosa to model the Mondrian dress, which is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum’s Costume Institute.

After her modeling career, Karl Lagerfeld hired her to design jewelry for Chanel. Four years later, she went out on her own.

The newest acquisition of The Creative Museum, this comb came from her Karl Lagerfeld period. It was designed for one of his haute couture fashion shows.

Hammered brass swirls surround a turquoise-glass stone. Your eye never loses interest in the swirls’ asymmetrical nature. The comb is a great sculpture in its own right. It is signed, original, and in perfect condition. The intelligence behind these purchases are what differentiates a collection from a museum, and what makes The Creative Museum great.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Yves St Laurent by Frances Muller

The Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Berge Collection: The Sale of the Century

Hair Combs from the Parthian and Sasanian Empires of Ancient Persia

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The Parthian Empire existed in Ancient Persia from 247 BC – 224 AD. It is also called the Arsacid Empire after Arsaces I of Parthia, the Parni tribal leader who conquered what is now, modern-day Iran’s northeast region. At its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the Euphrates in south-eastern Turkey to eastern Iran. Because its territory included the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire and the Han Empire of China, the Empire became a center of world commerce.

It was succeeded by the Sassanid Empire (224-651 AD), which was considered to be equal in power to Rome. The Sassanids also invented the word, “Eran,” which later became Iran. It was the last pre-Islamic Persian empire.

Its art was multicultural, encompassing Persian, Ancient Greek, and regional traditions. These two Parthian pieces, a hair comb and pin, come from the Reza-Abassi Museum in Iran. The jewels are carnelians.

On this gold coin, you can see the Sassanid Emperor Shapur II wearing a crown.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Persia: New Light on the Parthian and Sasanian Empires

Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia

Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire: The Sasanian-Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran

Ebay: Chinese Ivory Export Comb

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Someone is selling a beautiful Chinese ivory comb made for export to the Victorian market, c. 1890. It has a lotus flower in the middle, with beautiful scroll work. Stylistically married on top are balls of the Peigne Josephine. You can tell it’s Chinese by the shape of the bottom bridge and tines underneath the decorative tiara. Lovely piece. I have my hair comb payments tied up until April of next year, so someone under 5 feet tall will not be bidding. ;-) We’ll see what happens at the end of the week! :-)

Another beautiful example of a Chinese ivory export comb comes from The Creative Museum. Two dragons or griffins are having a conversation.

Here is mine.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

The Comb, by Jen Cruse

Le peigne: Dans le monde, by Robert Bollé

Chinese and Japanese Hair Ornaments by The Creative Museum

Italian Papal Tiara

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In Latin, it is known as the Triregnum. The crown of the Roman Catholic Pope has three jeweled tiers, but is rooted in Byzantine and Persian design. In fact, the word, “tiara,” is Persian.

The bottom crown appeared in the 9th Century. Jewels were added when the Popes attained political power in the Papal States of Italy. In 1298, Pope Boniface VIII added a second layer to assert that spiritual dominion had precedence over civil authority. Pope Clement V was the first to wear the triple tiara with the cross on top and gold strips, c. 1314.

On the left, Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) wears an early papal tiara, juxtaposed with Pope Pius IX’s ornate version (1846-1878).

At Sotheby’s, an Italian model, which never belonged to any pope, will be auctioned off on Nov. 4. 2011. It has no cross and is made of gold, seed pearls, and gems. Date: c. 1840. Estimated Value: $15,000 to $25,000. The leather case stamped Marcus & Co., New York.

However, when preparing for his coronation, Pope John Paul II was asked if he would like to wear a papal tiara and answered, “This is not the time to return to a ceremony and an object considered, wrongly, to be a symbol of the temporal power of the Popes. Our time calls us, urges us, obliges us to gaze on the Lord and immerse ourselves in humble and devout meditation on the mystery of the supreme power of Christ himself.”

A great man teaches us that a tiara can be more powerful in its absence than in its presence.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Tiara by Diana Scarisbrick

Royal Jewels by Diana Scarisbrick

Crowns, including: Crown (headgear), Papal Coronation, Crown Jewels Of Ireland, Tiara, Imperial Crown Of India, Iron Crown Of Lombardy, St Edward’s … Holy Crown Of Hungary, French Crown Jewels

Love and Responsibility by Pope John Paul II

Henri Gillet Hair Comb

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Henri Gillet used Art Nouveau designs to make lithographs, which were used as wallpaper from 1900 to the 1920’s. On one of them, he designed a horn comb. If it were ever made, I’d imagine the flurry of leaves to be plique-a-jour enamel. This lithograph is part of the Album de la Décoration, edited by A. Calavas and printed in Paris c. 1900.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Design Motifs of the Decorative Twenties in Color by Henri Gillet

Henri Gillet. Le Voleur d’instants

Bird of Paradise Ceremonial Headdress from Papua New Guinea

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A colleague of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) spent a decade writing The Malay Archipelago. The Land of the Orang-utang and the Bird of Paradise.

Europeans were mesmerized by the red bird of paradise, as it reminded them of a lost Eden. Wallace wrote extensively on how he used native contacts to kill them, or rather to get specimens for study.

Unlike the kingfisher, Paradisaeas are not extinct. Here is a rubra and a minor in all their glory.

Tribal leaders feathered this ceremonial headdress from the wings of the red bird of paradise, cockatoo, parrot, and pigeon. It was acquired by the National Museum in Papua, New Guinea in 1906.

For parents who might show this blog to their children, they can reassure them that Kevin from the movie, “Up” was a Kelenken, an extinct prehistoric bird, who lived 15 million years ago in Argentina. No one made headdresses out of Kevin, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief. :-)

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Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment by Truus and Jeremy Daalder

Edo and Meiji Kogai Sticks

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Earlier Meiji kogai sticks were long and flat, with gold maki-e decorations on each edge. Edo kogai sticks were shorter and thicker, carved just at the top. These Meiji tortoiseshell sticks come from The Creative Museum, while the Edo lacquer sticks reside in The Miriam Slater Collection.

This extraordinary early Meiji kogai stick belongs to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. It is gold, split like two sticks of bamboo, and depicts a sparrow flying through the trees.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Chinese and Japanese Hair Ornaments by The Creative Museum

The Combs and Ornamental Hairpins in the Collection of Miss Chiyo Okazaki

Ebay France: August Bonaz Cloud Comb — Faints :-)

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Following the love of clouds and wind in Japanese combs, August Bonaz put a French Art Deco twist to this design, where his clouds have small tines to symbolize rain. Bonaz was trying to tell us that “Every cloud has a silver lining.” It is elegantly curved, signed, and in splendid condition. A seller on Ebay France has listed it for € 450, or $622 as a Buy It Now. What is even better is that the auction mentions The Creative Museum’s Bonaz Collection as part of the comb’s provenance.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Costume Jewelry (DK Collector’s Guides)

Egyptian Ivory Comb: Before the Old Kingdom

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The Old Kingdom refers to Egypt, 3000 BC, when the country reached its first peak of civilization. However, historians date this comb to a few hundred years before that, and shows Egyptian art before recorded history.

It is an ivory ceremonial funeral comb of an elite person. Horizontal rows of animal figures suggest a style that became familiar in later Egyptian art. The choice of animals was not random, since elephants, snakes, birds, a giraffe, hyenas, and cattle appear on other carved ivory objects. The elephants standing on snakes may come from African creation myths, in which these two animals figure prominently. The comb resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art

In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt during the Old Kingdom

Ebay: Russian Comb by Faberge Workmaster Erik Kollin

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A tortoiseshell comb with an 18K gold bar decorated with rose- and white-gold sculpted flowers is selling for $1650 on Ebay France. It comes in its original box, with the maker’s name. EK: Erik August Kollin, Fabergé’s Finnish head workmaster until 1886. The first Faberge egg is also attributed to him.

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For more scholarly research, please examine

Faberge: Imperial Craftsman and His World

Faberge: The Forbes Collection.