Author Archives: BarbaraAnne

Gold and Turquoise French Hair Comb

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On first glance, this comb knocks me out. But upon further examination, it’s confusing. The hinged decoration with dangles on a tortoiseshell comb takes its inspiration from the Victorian Algerian style. However the turquoise cabochons and black enamel lines create a stark geometric pattern that mimics Art Deco. The ideas don’t make sense.

However, 33 turquoise cabochons on 18K gold are surrounded by black enamel. Thirteen pear-shaped turquoise cabochons form the dangles. The comb was imported into France — I’m going to guess from China because of the tightly wired, stiff, slinky-like dangles. The jeweler dates it c. 1900. I might put 10 years more on it, and it is on sale for $8500. It has a Fellini-esque absurdity to it, and I still love it. The condition is immaculate.

Japanese Kushi Themes

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In the Edo and Meiji eras, kushi became canvasses, on which artists could paint or carve cultural and religious symbols. Early Edo kushi had only one simple idea on a large comb-canvas. Late Edo kushi were still bigger than Meiji pieces, but both eras produced square and half-moon shapes.

From the Okazaki collection come these two Edo kushi: The first is painted red lacquer with white cranes. The crane symbolized freedom and was a balance to Minogame, the old tortoise who symbolized longevity and stability. Both symbols are important at weddings.

The second is an square-shaped ivory kushi with mother-of-pearl decorations including a pear, leaves, and a butterfly.

From the Miriam Slater Collection comes this tortoiseshell Edo kushi with a relief sculpture of three carp…

…and this late Edo set depicting the gifts of the seven gods of fortune: health, longevity, happiness, victory in war, knowledge, art, and wealth.

In the Meiji Era, artists sunk jewels into their tortoiseshell kushi, such as these amethyst leaves and flower from the Belva Green collection.

The Creative Museum just acquired this set with painted dragonflies on a lake, bordered with flowering trees. A set like this would very likely been seen in France, as the dragonfly is one of the landmark themes of Art Nouveau.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine The Creative Museum’s exhibition Chine et Japon: A Fleur de Tete and Okazaki Collection: Combs and Ornamental Hairpins (Japanese Edition)

You are also welcome to examine these books:


Okazaki Collection: Combs and Ornamental Hairpins (Japanese Edition)
Japanese Kimono Hair Comb – The Museum Collection (Japanese Edition)
The Comb: Its History and Development

Japanese Tama Kanzashi Themes

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Japanese women’s hairstyles became works of art during the Edo period (1603-1868). Lush ornamentation with kushi- and kogai-stick sets, accompanied by kanzashi followed. Only rulers, samurai clans, and other aristocratic families had mon, or crests to indicate their status. In the Meiji period (1868-1912), common families were allowed to obtain mon.

Tama is a type of kanzashi, which usually has a red or green ball. However, Meiji families also substituted their crests, or artists carved familiar cultural themes. Ivory and tortoiseshell kanzashi sticks could be as intricate as the featured decoration. Metal sticks could be used as weapons.

From the Okazaki Collection comes this group of brass kanzashi. They feature objects, which express Japanese culture: a lantern, water buckets, an instrument, carp, and a bird looking at a cherry blossom.

The Creative Museum has just obtained this magnificent Meiji ivory tama kanzashi with a family crest. The flower has a stone, and the stick is painted. It comes in the original box.

The ivory kanzashi of the the crescent moon with coral buds and the bird with two beads on a painted stick belong to Miriam Slater. The geisha in the center is mine.

From tama, we can travel back in time and imagine what life must have been like in Meiji Japan: the animals and flowers they loved, what people ate, their technology, and the music they played. It must have been a wonderful world.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine The Creative Museum’s exhibition Chine et Japon: A Fleur de Tete and Okazaki Collection: Combs and Ornamental Hairpins (Japanese Edition)

Morrocan Taj, or Crown

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This magnificent Moroccan wedding tiara is made up of three parts: two sides that meet in the middle and a piece that attaches on top. Made c. 1800, its openworked pyramid shape is richly decorated with emeralds and gemstones. It is inscribed “ربما هو على الله ورسوله” or Might is for God and His Messenger.

Sotheby’s estimates its worth at 15,000 GBP. I’ll be interested to know how much higher the final sale price will be.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please see these books, which have been added to our Resource Library.


Living in Morocco: Design from Casablanca to Marrakesh
Costumes berberes du Maroc. Decors traditionnels/Berber Costumes of Morocco.
Costumes Of Morocco

Miriam Slater and The Creative Museum: Two Japanese Combs

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Two of our authors have recently bought beautiful Japanese combs.

Miriam Slater bought this late Edo lacquer comb with a geometric petal-like background underneath painted chrysanthemums, dahlias, peonies, and hearts, all done in gold maki-e.

The Creative Museum added this ivory Taisho piece to their collection. It was made c. 1920, has a French shape for the European market, but is decorated with a classic Japanese theme: insects feeding from flowers. The gold maki-e paint has tinctures of red pigment.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Okazaki Collection: Combs and Ornamental Hairpins

Mimi Favre: Lanai Hair Ornament

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Mimi Favre, a modern jeweler, had to enter a piece for the Philadelphia International Flower Show‘s exhibiton, “Hawaii, Islands of Aloha.”

This is what she sketched:

She detailed her artistic process on her blog.

And here is her final piece:

I love it. She also has a shop. :-)

Sotheby’s Bling: Brooch Hair Combs

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Jewelry by any other fitting shines as sweet.

A woman can buy almost any brooch or pendant and pin it on a bun, hat, or headband. We don’t have to follow jewelers. We have to follow our imaginations and order fittings. For example, here is how you could attach a pendant to a black velvet headband:

This modern pendant is made of translucent icy jadeite with diamonds set in white gold. Sotheby’s estimates its value at $10,000. It depicts the Guan Yin, who is revered by East Asian Buddhists. In Sanskrit, she is known as the bodhisattva, or enlightened existence. She is associated with compassion and mercy and was named after Empress Shen Wuhua of the Chen Dynasty (557-589), whose Buddhist-nun name was Guan Yin.

For a night, I would substitute this pendant for the diamond star on the black velvet headband and be honored to wear it.

Here are some other items I would buy:

The yellow-sectioned bakelite ornament is sewn into the black straw hat. Whoever put this Cartier diamond-and-onyx, chain-link brooch on top has an eye. The pear-shaped diamond at the bottom of the brooch is 3.46 carats, D in color, and internally flawless. c. 1915. Price estimate: $190,000.

This 18K-gold leaf brooch / hair ornament is a modern, signed piece by Tsai An Ho. The lady bugs have tourmaline cabachons with moonstone and tsavorite-garnet eyes. Price estimate: $9000.

This Art Deco ornament was made by the House of Mauboussin in Paris, c. 1930. Price estimate: $33,000. The company was awarded the Grand Prix at the Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in the 1920’s for its dedication to the Art Deco movement. Mauboussin organized a diamond exhibition in 1931, and this piece probably comes from that. It can be separated into two side clips for the hair because the company made multiple fittings. Mixing small baguettes and round diamonds of different sizes, the jeweler created depth and perfect balance.

If we went to the opera in our Mauboussin, which purse would we bring? I would choose this one. Van Cleef & Arpels made it in 1923 out of seed pearls, and ornamented it with diamonds and large pear-shaped pearls. The interior is white leather. I must gush. This is the most beautiful purse I have ever seen. Price estimate: $300,000.

कंघी

It’s very difficult to do scholarly research when your tongue is hanging out, and you are trying to breathe while thinking, “I want everything NOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW!” However, these books have been added to our Resource Library for your torment, oh — information. :-)


Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels: Tiara made for Princess Fwazia Pahlavi of Iran, 1939
Van Cleef and Arpels

Faberge Hair Pins on E-Bay

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This is an exquisite set of three Faberge 18K gold, diamond and tortoiseshell hair pins. The geometric mesh is a distinctly Russian design. The combs also have an Imperial-style border and come in their original box. They are selling for $12,000.

Sewn into the original box are the gold letters of Faberge. The crest over them has the double-headed eagle with a crown in the middle of it. As we learned from the ivory liturgical comb commemorating Sophia Paleologue, this is the mark of the Tsar, which means that these combs were made for the Royal Family.

If you look at the maker’s marks in the back of the larger gold hair pin, you will see Faberge’s name, and what I believe is ES, the mark of work master Eduard W. Shramm, who came to St. Petersburg from Germany and made cigarette cases and other small jeweled pieces.

This is a picture of the original Faberge store on 24 Bolshaya Morskaya in St. Petersburg, ca. 1910.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine these books, which can be found in our Resource Library.


Faberge: Imperial Jeweler
The Comb: Its History and Development
Le Peigne Dans Le Monde

English Citrine Parure at Sotheby’s

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Although this magnificent gold and citrine parure came from a Spanish collection, I believe its origin is English, c. 1830. This is because there is a special pouch in the original box for different fittings, which allow pieces to be worn in different ways.

The bracelet clasps can be removed and worn as brooches. Post and clip fittings allow the earrings to be flexible, as well. Each hair ornament comes with a two-pronged hair pin, but they can also be put together to make a tiara. The parure is set with citrines in gold scroll and floral repoussé work motifs.

If this set were French, I’d expect to see an Empire comb with a citrine tiara attachment. It sold 30,000 GBP at Sotheby’s.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine these books, which can be found in our Resource Library.


Tiara
Timeless Tiaras
Rings

The Real Sophia, wife of Ivan the Great, on a Russian Orthodox Comb

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In 1237, Genghis’s grandson Batu-Khan invaded Kievan Rus and burned all its cities to the ground. Ivan III Vasilyevich — the Great (1440-1505) defeated the Mongols and took the land back. He also rebuilt the Kremlin, which was then a fortress of churches and palaces, and established The Grand Duchy of Moscow, becoming the first Tsar.

He married Sophia Paleologue in 1472, niece of the last Byzantine Emperor at the suggestion of Pope Paul II. The Pope thought this marriage would allow him to consolidate the Roman and Eastern Orthodox faiths under his authority after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Forensic reconstruction of Sophia done in 1994

But it didn’t happen. Sophia was shrewd, powerful, and loved her family’s Eastern Orthodox faith. She assimilated the elaborate ceremonies of Byzantine Christianity into Moscow’s court, including the double-headed eagle. A religious symbol in ancient Turkey, Byzantine culture placed a crown in the middle of the eagle’s two heads to symbolize the Emperor’s power over the East and West.

This…

is a Russian ivory liturgical comb, c. 1680. It resides at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The text reads “God is one, God is serenity.”

However, I believe the woman on each edge is a left- and right-side profile portrait of the REAL Sophia, not in a burial headdress, but in the tiara she wore while she lived. An oral historian could have described her to the comb’s maker. In the center is her historical legacy: the double-headed eagle with a crown, a national symbol of Russia to this day.

कंघी

This research was done with the help of Vadim Zaliva.

For more scholarly research, please examine these books, which can be found in our Resource Library.

Ivan III and the Unification of Russia
The Eagle Has Two Faces: Journeys Through Byzantine Europe
ICONS: MASTERPIECES OF RUSSIAN ART