Lucien Gaillard (1861-1942) was a contemporary of René Lalique and achieved equal fame c. 1900, as Art Nouveau and Japonisme swept Paris. However, unlike Lalique, Gaillard’s animals and insects were proportioned exactly. He did not elongate parts of his animals to express Symbolist philosophy. In his famous “Bluebird” comb, he observed the arch of birds’ bodies as they dove in flight and made each bird a slightly different size. You may compare Lalique’s landmark “Two Swallows with a Stalk of Oats” to Gaillard’s “Bluebird,” which sold at Christie’s for $218,000 on Oct 21, 2009.

Gaillard also paid homage to the Japanese use of realistic proportions with cherry blossoms. An Edo artist painted this cherry tree in gold maki-e tortoiseshell comb: The Miriam Slater Collection.

Gaillard carved his cherry blossoms out of horn, painted the tree bark, and depicted flower buds with pearls.

One of Gaillard’s other masterpieces resides in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Two dragonflies fight over prey. They are asymmetrical, but the design is perfectly balanced. In addition, Gaillard mixes translucent stones, semi-translucent wings, and opaque bodies.

Here are some other combs from a 2004 catalogue by Millon & Associés:

A painted horn relief of mulberry branches supports blue-white glass flowers on each end of this comb.

Gaillard spread an orchid and attached a silver ring to the inner petals. The ring sports two ladybugs and two pearls.

This horn comb’s sculpted gold leaves hold a mother-of-pearl bud. Notice how the stem of the center leaf overlaps the middle tine of the comb.

The Creative Museum also has two combs similar to the designs of Lucien Gaillard. One has clear horn leaves embellished with a paste-diamond spray and a green cabochon, and the other is a pair of ginko leaves. One ginko leaf is edged with paste diamonds, while the other has a lighter green cabachon.

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For more scholarly research, please examine the books Christie’s used, which have been added to our Resource Library. They are both by Alastair Duncan.

Paris Salons 1895-1914: Jewellery, Vol. 1: The Designers A-K

The Paris Salons, 1895-1914: Jewellery, Vol. 2: The Designers L-Z

Power goes to it. It won’t turn on. Shop Monday. When it’s fixed, the pictures will show again. SORRY!

First up today is a 19th Century Portuguese tiara made of gold metal, sapphires, and baroque pearls, c. 1840. It sold for $1100.

We continue with a French blonde tortoiseshell back comb, c. 1890. The center ornament is a blue and white cameo of angels posing as the three muses. It is encased with diamonds. On each side are pearls separated by two gold leaves with a diamond in the center, and side blue enamel plaques with diamond roses. It sold for $3200.

Our last comb is by George Fouquet. The scrolled top of this blonde tortoiseshell comb is bordered with diamonds, and graced with opal leaves on both sides. Calibré-cut amethysts, three diamonds and a gold leaf reside in the middle. The piece is signed G.Fouquet and sold for $11,176.

Best known for its British Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau jewelry, this firm opened in 1880, producing neo-Renaissance pieces. From 1891 – 1916, the imaginative, bright enamel work on their peacock, wing, and insect designs won them Royal patronage. In 1916, the firm closed.

This piece, which is signed, might be part of their earlier work. Hinged to a tortoiseshell comb, the silver tiara is laced with garnets. What I love about it though is the hat on top with its ribbons flowing through silverwork. It sold at Sotheby’s for 1350 UKP.

However, when Child & Child’s artistry became revolutionary, one of their most famous pieces was a tiara of two bright blue enamel peacock wings, which sold at the Tadema Gallery in London. I know the price range was over 20,000 UKP, but I cannot imagine the exact, final price.

We’ve been following a lot of combs sold at Sotheby’s auctions. I thought it might be useful to list their final sale prices to get a sense of the comb market. Like any antique, the highest prices went to pieces that were made by the hands of a master who changed the way the world thought about art. The great masters made combs-as-jewelry and combs-as-ideas. Each thumbnail photo will be linked to the original post, so everyone can see the description.

I am buying a very interesting late Meiji kushi and kogai set. Although the material is tortoiseshell, has gaps in the gold makie paint to allow light to show through the comb, has the Meiji feature of the design folding over the top of the comb as it goes from front to back, and the size and shape are definitely Meiji, this set is creeping toward a modern aesthetic.

Like modern Japanese sets, the design objects are bigger, the painting goes over the tines of the comb, there is a bigger picture on the front and a punctuated design on the back, and most notably, there is color. I think the red flowers on this comb got to me, and I had to have it. But I love this set because it has one foot in the past and one foot in the future.