Category Archives: American Hair Comb

Creative-Museum.com

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There is a completeness to this 2500-comb collection, as it spans the whole world and time. Most individual collections specialize. This museum brings together the love of many in a dazzling display of hair comb art. The pictures are a community unto themselves.

The museum founders state, “There is nowhere you can see this collection, since it is private. As the owners want to share its resources with everyone, CREATIVE MUSEUM will do its best to offer all the services you could find in a museum: a temporary exhibition with a special theme, a view of the permanent collection, background information and more: expertise.”

Here are a few comparisons and pictures. From the museum:

I believe this is my picture of the same comb in 2004.

Here is a Manchurian hairpin from the collection.

This is my Manchu piece.

And here are just three pictures, which reveal the eye of the collective mastery that brings this project to life. The still-life photography is superb.

An African bird.

A Bonaz Mantilla comb.

A Chinese diadem.

Chinese Hair Ornaments

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China’s Jiangsu Province now has a comb museum. Displaying 300 ancient combs, the museum is located in Changzhou.

The combs of Changzhou fall into two categories: Shue and Bi. Shue combs are made of wood and are practical items with which to comb hair. The Bi is fine-toothed and used to clean the hair of debris. Both combs were made into an art form and were given as gifts of tribute at the Imperial Court.

To celebrate the opening of this museum, I thought I’d do a post on Chinese combs and hair sticks. This is a Changzhou Bi comb. Made of ivory and brass, the artist painted a Chinese scene with perspective and signed the piece.

These are two Chinese hair sticks from the Qing Dynasty (1945-present):

And this is a bridal hair ornament from Kazakstan, an autonomous region of China.

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This comb from the Tlingit tribe of the Pacific Northwest depicts the head, torso and forelegs of a bear. Human faces are carved within the bear’s ears, and a bear cub’s face peaks out between them. There is symmetry between the bear’s teeth, claws, and the comb’s tines. The reverse side features two human feet with cross-hatching on the soles; intriguingly the right foot has six toes. The decorative surround framing the feet may well represent a stylized bear’s den.

Historians are not sure if these combs were used by women or shamans. Others suggest weavers to carded mountain goat wool with them. Whatever the application, this classic evocative carving was old when it was collected in 1867-68, and the comb is attributed to the year 1772. It sold for $37,600.

A Sense of Metal and Individualism

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With American artists Alexander Calder, Albert Paley, Olaf Skoogfors, and others, a sense of combining hammered metals with other materials emerged to make jewelry, which expressed the individualism of each artist’s imagination. Individualism, American style, means you rule what you can become. That idea is at the core of these creations.

They are different from other pieces I’ve shown here, which followed movements, or conformed to the styles of countries.

The first piece is a hair comb from Alexander Calder, which I took from a YouTube video sent to me by twob (THANK YOU!). It took my breath away. It’s made of silver and decorated with Calder twisting wires into different-sized swirls.I thought to myself, “Swirls make the woman!”

The next Calder piece is a brooch/barrette made of gold and steel wire in 1958.

Two other brooch/barrettes I liked were made by Albert Paley in 1970, who used silver, gold, ivory, pearls, and labradorite for this elaborate, beautiful piece.

and Olaf Skoogfors, who made this silver, ivory, and pearl brooch/barrette in 1975.

Calder Brass Tiara

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Graduated vertical brass bands, with a spiral terminal on top, extend from a brass hoop. The tiara measures 21 1/4 inches. Calder chose flat metal as a major theme of his jewelry designs in brass, copper, silver and gold.

English art historian Sir Kenneth Clark purchased the piece for his wife at the Freddy Mayor Gallery in England in 1938.

Alexander Calder Barrette

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Just after the Allies won the Second World War, John and Ruth Boland acquired this Alexander Calder brooch/barette at the Paris Exhibition in Washington, DC. The year was 1944. Calder started making jewelry in the 1940’s, and of course hair ornaments were included. The inventiveness of these small pieces later influenced his larger works. This brooch/barrette sold in 2006 for $192,000 at Sothebys.

Some Lovely Things on Ebay

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A beautiful Lalique comb with a gold top centered by a woman wearing a hat, surrounded by two birds. One bird head is outside the design. The other is hidden behind the design. The comb is made of horn. Listed for $3000, an offer of $2000 was accepted on March 21. The markings said Lalique Paris 585. You may refer to auction #200321633101.




A lovely ivory pheonix comb that the Chinese made for the Victorian market sold for $266 on March 26. You may refer to auction #350180262355.




Finally, an Angela Cummings barrette she made for Tiffany’s in the 1980s sold for $990 on March 25. She is a wonderful designer known for her original interpretations of natural forms in gold and diamonds. You may refer to auction #360140208688.

Deco Enamel

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This beautiful art deco comb looks like it’s folded-over fabric. The dealer said it came from the family of a bodyguard and friend of Abraham Lincoln, but he only had the word of the family. Provenance cannot be proved, so poof on the value of that, but the comb’s design is fabulous. It sold for $162.50 on March 23. You may refer to auction #310129381111. Although the dealer calls it a Victorian comb, it’s not. This is 1920’s deco in beautiful form.