Category Archives: Han Dynasty

China: Ancient Combs of the World, by Kajetan Fiedorowicz

When the artist inside rules you, you climb mountains. Society judges you on your idiosyncrasies alone, unless you can communicate why you devoted your life to a love of something. With Kajetan Fiedorowicz, this love was for combs. I believe his artistic eye; his instincts that allow him to understand genius, in whatever condition it comes, from where ever it comes; his taste and class; and his passion for scholarship has made him one of the greatest comb collectors in the world. Hair combs are blessed because he fell in love with them.

He wanted his collection to be a comb museum, but tragedy and unimaginable heartbreak struck. Some scorned him. They tried to beat him. That’s when you know who your friends are. Others never wavered. “Never surrender,” he always said to me.

Today that strength of character triumphed. The KF Comb Research Project announced the prototype publication of “China: Ancient Combs of the World, Vol. IV.”

He said, “Very important for this vol. IV on ancient Chinese combs was to get it proof read and checked by someone educated and competent with this particular and very narrowly specialised subject matter. I was fortunate to get through to the best person, Miss Jing Yang, the senior researched in Palace Museum in Beijing,

“who is also an author of the best selling book on a history of Chinese combs and hair ornaments, pictured below.”

“It has been my honour and a privilege to receive a favourable opinion from such a prominent researcher. And her signature in my book prototype… how epic :) is that.”

“I also thank Wu Yi Shiuan for making this possible.” (Editors note: Wu Yi Shiuan is the founder and head of the Chinese Hairpin Museum)

Kajetan continues, “I’m pleased to report major progress with my books on ancient and ethnic combs of the world. As some of you may know, I’m working on a series of 5 volumes presenting (in pictures) the results of my long time research and collecting efforts, divided by cultural regions. The first test copies were printed and I’m in a process of fixing unavoidable errors.”

Perfect English grammar eludes us all, even those of us who think in English. However, you rarely find an uncompromising purist you can trust to identify every single piece correctly. That takes 30 years to do, and he’s done it. Only love could have produced the photographs in this book.

Kajetan, you changed my life with that Māori comb auction on E-bay. I wrote about you before knowing you existed, and amused you in the process. Then I met you, and you taught me how to see. If you can do this, I can overcome my life’s mountains, too. Thank you for these books. Thank you for your life.

Creative Museum: Stones, Leaves, Scissors

The Creative Museum just played a significant part in another exhibition at the Montelimar Miniature Museum.

STONES, LEAVES, SCISSORS is about hair ornaments made in three different ways. Whether an artist looks at a piece of jade and carves a crown, looks at a piece of silver and cuts leaves into an intricate pattern, or takes lock of hair and puts it in a locket or medallion — each method of craftsmanship is showcased.

The ground floor is dedicated to semi-precious stones on hair ornaments. This Chinese jade crown made in the Qing Dynasty and decorated with a phoenix is a great example.

Dragon figures were male symbols. When they were carved on a crown’s side wings, it was a sign of a well-read Chinese man. The wings could also be upright, as in this example of open-worked pale green jade. The solid parts are carved with dragons, which are also an emblem of power.

Jade stone was supposed to help deceased people reach heaven, so a jade comb was added to other burial objects inside the tomb. Transparency is one of its qualities. Its infinite shades — such as olive green, almond green, pinkish brown, or orchid white — are endless.

Women wore jade on more discrete ornaments. They usually preferred jadeite, which was less expensive and enjoyed the vivid green color against their jet black hair. This delicate hair ornament is for a “liang-patou” (large hair knot or black silk knot) and is richly decorated with gems and pearls. Note the little butterfly with a coral bead on the tip of its antennas.

From China again, these bright pink tourmalines strengthen the dazzle of the bright blue kingfisher feathers inlaid in Manchu adornments.

Amber is a fossil resin which presents different shades of yellow. It is pale yellow when it comes from the Baltic Sea, and a clear caramel color when from Europe. The plaque on this tortoiseshell comb features typical Skonvirke style flowers. It is made of repousse silver embellished with Baltic amber beads. (Hallmarks: H&C 830 S: H.N Hviid & Co in Copenhagen.)

In the same museum case, we added the brick red of cornelian from central asian adornments such as this double-sided Turkomen wedding comb, which is made of wood covered with embossed brass and decorated with gemstones on both sides.

We also included another liang-patou ornament, featuring twins carved in amber inside a lotus flower. The flower was once fully inlaid with kingfisher feathers. These figures are symbol of fertility.

The red garnet and the purple amethyst meet on Western pieces such as these two French Empire combs, one of glass stones, and the other sporting real amethysts.

Our Indian hair pin with opal and ruby, tortoiseshell Eugenie comb with malachite balls, and our theatre tiara with crystal quartz complete this colored collection of stones, a real must for any jewelry collection.

The leaves theme shows the use of floral design on hair ornaments, complex decoration that required highly skilled craftsmen. In the museum case, Chinese mirrors shine like bright stars next to hair combs decorated with branches and leaves. In Japan, nature has always been at the forefront of artists’ inspiration. This comb from Dejima painted with branches and leaves, and our Edo comb with chrysanthemums are perfect examples.

Tsunami kanzashi are hair pins whose flowers are made with folded silk squares.

When older women have formal parties, they favor traditional dress. They love older style kanzashi wedding sets. This silver wedding kanzashi portrays the long-living turtle Minogame and the crane, symbols of longevity and happiness.

This wedding headdress with exuberant blooms comes from the Miao people, a Chinese minority. It is part of a bridal dowry, and it would have been considered sacrilegious to have taken it away from the bride for any reason.

In the late 19th Century, Chinese craftsmen, who were expert at carving ivory and tortoiseshell, made ornamental combs for the Western market. Flowers like the lotus, a symbol of purity; the chrysanthemum, a symbol of longevity; and the rose, a symbol of luck; were the most popular designs.

On this hair ornament from Burma, the decoration appears like a flower and leaf bridge.

A spectacular headdress brings to an end, the leaves theme. It comes from Sumatra, weighs 3.3 pounds, and is worn for weddings. Each element is a flower, mounted on a spring stem, decorated with tiny leaves.

Today, we are surprised to see hair used as a material for jewelry, but it was very common in Victorian times. Bracelets, necklaces, brooches, even diadems were made with it. The British and French deeply appreciated wearing medallions with their initials: charm drops, pendants, and collar and cuff buttons made of woven hair. Medallions were often made as reliquary, which kept the permanent memory of a loved person. The traditional motif was a tomb with willow tree and cyprus as symbols of death.

More Treasures from The Frances Wright Collection

Frances has been generous enough to share more of her treasures with us. The photographs were taken by her husband, Terry Wright.

This is a Romanov comb, the real thing. Faint now. It is tortoiseshell, with a gold, silver, and pearl heading and the mark of one of Faberge’s most famous designers. The original box, below, has a ruby on it. Compared to the Russian crown jewels, this comb is intimate. I imagine one of Nicholas and Alexandra’s daughters wearing it to tea.

The octagonal shagreen box has acanthus-leaf scrolling. In the middle is the Romanov crest with a ruby in the center.

A garland of enameled daises with faux citrines is hinged to a horn comb in this example. This modestly sized comb was made for a chignon at the back of the head, c. 1860.

The metal tiara is hinged to a horn comb, painted with dark blue and green enamel, and decorated with turquoise cabochons in this Art Nouveau comb. c. 1900.

A curved gilt silver band surrounded by small crystals is attached to a metal structure, which was engineered to hold 10 crystal spheres in place. The decoration sits atop a tortoiseshell comb. The piece comes in its original box with the retailer’s name, Cockburn and MacDonald, Edinburgh. c. 1860.

This is a beautiful Peigne d’Alger. A gilt silver tiara has openwork in the middle and holds three seed-pearl circles. Hanging on the bottom are two interlocking chains and three faux pearl pendants. The decoration is hinged to a horn comb. c. 1880.

This is a Huasheng (花胜), or floral hair ornament. It is worn in a chignon above the middle of the forehead. A lotus flower is the central subject. Stories about Huasheng go back to the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 9 CE). The Book of Han, Vol 2, includes a biography of the Chinese poet Sima Xiangru, who wrote, “She lives in a cave, wearing Huasheng in her snow-white hair.” On Hunan Day, women give Huasheng as gifts, as scholars climb to elevations to compose poems. This kingfisher comb was made in the 19th Century, Qing Dynasty. The only comb I have ever seen of this quality was in 2009.

Thank you Frances and Terry for sharing these with us.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine our Resource Library and these books:


The Comb: Its History and Development

Le Peigne Dans Le Monde

Combs and Hair Accessories

Learning from the Creative Museum and Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment

In quotes are comments from Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment by Truus Daalder. Reference numbers are in italics and specified at the bottom. The photographs and other writing come from the collection and scholarship of The Creative Museum. I thought it would be interesting to combine them. They crossed paths in China, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia.

कंघी

“It is in the hairstyles and head decorations that perhaps the greatest variety of shapes exist, and the Southern Chinese minorities are possibly second only to the Mongolians in the exuberance of their headwear, particularly during festivals. Girls preserve hair lost in combing to compose extra hairpieces to incorporate into elaborate coiffures.” (1)

The dots and circles on the bone tines of this comb from The Creative Museum were made using pyrography, a technique where decorations are burned into wood or bone using a heated object. It also has cotton threads, black and white glass beads and a huge red pom pom in the middle. Red is the color of good fortune in China. The comb belongs to the Yao people.

“In pre-historic times, most of present-day Indonesia was attached to mainland Southeast Asia… However, when the ice melted after the last Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, low-lying land was covered by sea, and Indonesia turned into a country of thousands of islands… Over time, waves of migrants came to the Indonesian islands, particularly from mainland Southeast Asia.” (2)

The dugout-canoe shape of this striking, lacquered black-horn comb from the Creative Museum evokes the boat that brought ancestors from the south-east Asiatic continent to the Indonesian archipelago. It was made c. 1970.

“The mainland of Southeast Asia is the meeting place of many borders and many ethnic groups. Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam share many of their borders with each other, and often share ethnic groups, as well.” (3)

Among the reasons for this are

  • During the Ming Dynasty, the Han Chinese pushed minority groups south, and many settled in Southeast Asia
  • Barbarian invasions from the North and Northwest pushed some Tai language speakers to Burma, Laos, and Thailand
  • In the 19th century, kingdoms, such as the Khmer in Cambodia, gained and lost power, and there was British and French colonial expansion. Both factors changed the borders within Southeast Asia
  • In 1949, minority groups who fought Communism fled China when Mao won, and fled Laos in 1975, when the Communists took over there
  • Borders were of little concern to ethnic groups who practiced slash-and-burn agriculture (4)

The pyramid-shaped hair pins from The Creative Museum are worn by Red Taï and Hmong women in Laos. Their hairstyles often took more than one pin to keep them in place.

Made in the early 20th Century, the long one has a pyramid shape and ornate filigree decorations. It is hollow with a lid and used as a tobacco container, a marriage between beauty and function. The shorter one is wood wrapped in silver.

“The last dynasty before a period of instability and finally the victory of Communism in 1949 was the Manchu Qing Dynasty, consisting of Manchurian invaders from the North, which ruled from 1644 – 1911… Coral, jade, and pearls were popular, and during the Qing Dynasty there was also a revival of kingfisher feather jewellery. This was so popular that the kingfisher bird with the brightest blue feathers was hunted to extinction” (5)

Showcasing this history, the last piece I will feature is The Creative Museum’s stunning Manchu hairpin. It has three dimensions. The first layer is made of branch coral, amber, jadeite, and kingfisher feathers. The second layer is a circle of small coral beads, strung in small heart shapes. The third has a kingfisher decoration at the center. The piece is shaped to form a flower and bring good luck to the wearer.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please see the exhibits and publications of The Creative Museum. To order a copy of Chinese and Japanese Hair Ornaments, please write to contact@creative-museum.com. Payment can be made through Paypal.

Also, every collector must have


Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment

References:
(1) Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, by Truus Daalder, page 216
(2) Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, by Truus Daalder, page 171
(3) Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, by Truus Daalder, page 209
(4) Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, by Truus Daalder, page 209
(5) Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment, by Truus Daalder, page 218

Chinese Gold Jewelry

To elaborate on the development of Chinese gold jewelry, I had to take an archaeological journey from the Shang Dynasty (1766 – 1122 B.C.) to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 A.D.). Looking at ancient maps, China started out small. Amid tribal wars, power struggles and consolidation made boundaries fluid. Ideas were exchanged.

Through collision and synthesis Chinese goldsmiths innovated, most notably when they made hair pins and crowns. Gold leaf, repoussé, casting, moulding, welded beading, filigree, drawn work, and plating have all been seen in excavated pieces, as well as those for sale at auction houses.

This Shang gold hair pin came from a grave in Liujiahe, near Beijing. Now famous in archaeological circles, the gold found here proves that metalworking, and therefore the Bronze Age started in China 4000 years ago, 800 years before Europe. What you see is the pin alone. Cast from a mould, there is a small, straight tenon joint at the front. This fit into the mortise of the pin’s ornament.

During the Spring-and-Autumn subperiod of the Warring States Dynasty (475 – 221 B.C.), this bird final to a royal crown was attributed to the Xiōngnú, a nomadic Mongol tribe who fought and conquered Chinese peoples to form the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.). The finial was also cast, but you can now see colored-stone inlay techniques. Welded beading in other jewelry was also excavated at the same grave in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

When the Xiōngnú consolidated more territory during the Han Dynasty, the ideals they placed upon gold began to interact with Western tribal cultures, who cherished jade. The evidence can be seen in hair ornaments unearthed in Xigoupan, Mongolia, where jade was paired with gold.

After the Han Dynasty, three Yan Dynasties followed: Former, Latter, and Northern (265 – 420 A.D.), the Murong branch of Xianbei peoples established control and made beautiful gold headdress ornaments with dangling leaves called buyao, which means “shake as you go.” Here are examples of three ornaments and a full crown. (An aside: I am amazed at how the crown’s design resembles the Dogon chief’s crown at The Creative Museum.)

Baodianzhuang inlay, where stones were placed inside a gold casing, was popular among the aristocracy of the Yuan Dynasty (1271 – 1368 A.D.). A full set of 7 gold hair ornaments was found in Huangpi, Hubei Province in Central China, just north of Hunan. Two gold hair pins, hair slides, ornaments, and the back of a comb were originally inlaid with precious stones, now missing. Because the pieces are not the same size, they could not have been worn symmetrically.

Two of the most beautiful crowns ever found were from the Wanli Emperor in the Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644 A.D.), who ascended the throne at age 9. He was buried with a spectacular crown. Artists coiled and welded woven gold mesh, which served as the background to a gold dragon adorned with pearls and 20 other jewels.

One of Wanli’s two empresses, Xiaoduan, was buried with a kingfisher crown that boasted 6 phoenixes, 6 dragons, 128 rubies and sapphires, and 5449 pearls.

In 1521, the wife of a county secretary was found with a jewel-encrusted gold phoenix hair pin in her grave. As hair jewelry was a strict delimiter of social status, this shows a market change. Anyone with access to money could wear gold jewelry.

The Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911 A.D.) started with the intent to carry on Ming traditions, however, the Imperial family came from the Jurchen ethnic group from Northeast China, or Manchuria. They consolidated the most land, including Mongolia, and formed alliances with the Mongolian aristocracy. Their religion was Tibetan Buddhism and included shamanistic sacrifices.

In 2008, Sotheby’s had an auction of Qing gold hair pins. Keeping with tradition, each hair ornament was decorated with auspicious symbols, denoting social status. Many were shaped like ruyi, a back-scratching sceptre dating back to the Han Dynasty. Here are some pictures and prices:

Gold filigree borders a ruyi-shaped head with a pearl in the center. Six symbols are attached to the top by gold wire, including 4 dragons and a wan symbol, wishing the wearer prosperity and good fortune. Sale price: $15,000.

Five hammered gold petals separate 5 gold filigree petals with inlaid turquoise. A winged boy flying in the clouds decorates the pin itself. Sale price: $8000.

A meticulous gold-filigreed phoenix with pearls in perfect condition. I see Ming Dynasty influence in this piece. Sale price: $66,000.

You may find exquisite samples of modern jewelry at Sweet-Madness.com.

Happy Chinese New Year. :-) It’s the Year of the Dragon. Celebrate by choosing some affordable Chinese Dragon Jewelry.

कंघी

Source: Ancient Cultures of Jewelry and Ornamentation by Yang Boda: Arts of Asia, 2008

You may also examine


Kingfisher Blue: Treasures of an Ancient Chinese Art

The Language of Adornment: Chinese Ornaments of Jade, Crystal, Amber, and Glass

Politics of Chinese Language and Culture: The Art of Reading Dragons

Kajetan Fiedorowicz: A Glimpse of My Collection

It is my pleasure to share a short film, where I speak about and show some pieces from my collection.

I also recently did a radio interview.

Thank you all so graciously for your time.

Kajetan