18th-Century Edo comb. One idea: A dragon in the clouds. In Japanese mythology, dragons were water gods in charge of rainfall, lakes, rivers, and oceans. The serpentine dragon on this comb was typical — large and wingless, with clawed feet. The artist worked with the tortoiseshell’s natural color gradations, painting the dragon in the exact place where his tongue would be the deepest red.
The only mark on it is Sterling, but this beautiful hair pin depicts two Gingko leaves with a bug. It’s made with cloisonne enamel. The colors are gorgeous. It seems very Japonisme to me, so I don’t know if the maker was French or Japanese, but it sold for $275 on September 16. Congratulations to the winner.
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.
On Ebay, there are some really nice Japanese sets and stand-alone kushis from the Edo, Meiji, and Taisho eras. Edo’s shape is square, Meiji is round but made of natural materials, and Taisho is round and gets into bold vivid, color. These pieces are in excellent condition. The only problem is the price. I’m not paying $900 for a kushi. Next Life. But enjoy!
This late-Edo tortoiseshell comb is held in an open silver frame with a silver mount Fuji behind gold and silver birds. The fruit on the tree are pearls. A similar decoration graces the matching kogai stick. It comes in its original box and is selling for $1400 on Trocadero.
I also liked this carved gilt lacquer comb inlaid with mother of pearl flowers and decorated with flying cranes. With matching kogai stick, the set is signed Sho Rin. It is selling for $1200 on Trocadero.
However,I just bought my second Chinese export comb for the Victorian market, c. 1890, because it had a bird on it, and I don’t have a birdie comb. ;-) The price was $355 on ebay.
Set of two Meiji tortoiseshell kanzashi with plovers on them. The last two shell kanzashi I bought arrived broken. Let’s hope the third one’s the charm! lol I paid a whopping $77 for them on ebay. I love the seller, though. She’s a superb collector.
All the artists who made these combs, c. 1800, are unknown. The first is carved and incised ivory with openwork, showing two cranes pointing at a family crest, which in Japanese is called KA-MON. KA means families with their own genealogical trees, and MON means crest.
The second comb is made of tortoiseshell, graced with cream and red lacquer. The artist painted two plover birds flying to a rest spot on a bamboo tree branch. The two points of interest are on the sides of the comb: the left edge shows the birds, while just to the right side, lined up with the tines, a red bamboo trunk waits for the birds to land on its branches.
Third, is a square tortoiseshell comb with several floral gold maki-e designs.
Last but not least, is a grey half-moon-shaped comb showing a mother-of-pearl half moon shining amid a sky of gold stars and chimeras.
All four combs reside in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Whether the artist used rosewood, tortoiseshell, or blackwood, combs shaped like a rainbow became known as Gen’nai Gushi. In the 1700’s, two combs weren’t enough. A woman had to wear three. Kogai sticks became bigger because women wrapped their hair around it to make a chignon.
From 1711 – 1716, the Shotoku era of the Edo period, women began to wear both combs and kogai sticks. Sets were made.
From 1716 – 1736, the early Kyoho era, kogai started out wide, thin, and short, but by the end became long and straight. They were replaced by kanzashi for pure ornamental decoration.
Here are a few examples of kogai sticks from the Edo and Meiji periods so you can see how the shapes developed.
The first kogai stick, made of metal, is Edo. The others are Meiji.
Some exquisite Edo Combs
Front
Back
A mid-Edo tortoiseshell comb with mother-of-pearl hydrangeas and gold maki-e, signed by Nagano Oteki
A Edo Era tortoiseshell kushi and kogai set with a peony design.
A Meiji set with a mother-of-pearl moon, flowing water, and maki-e autumn leaves.
The first comb is not in perfect condition. There are bug bites, and the seller is accurate in showing them. However the comb takes you into a Japanese water garden with lillies. I have not identified the plant whose leaves line the pond. A Meiji artist painted this. Right now, it’s at $90 with 7 days to go. I assume it will go higher, but I have no idea what the winning bid will be. I’ll update this post in a week.
There is another late 1800s Edo comb for sale, lovely gold, black, and red design. There are also bug bites on the tines, but this one is selling for $67.99 with 16 hours to go.
Early Edo: This wooden comb is 17th-Century Edo. You can tell by the size, artistic style, and subject. It’s one idea on a large comb canvas is a chimera behind a folding screen.
From the Nomura Shojiro Collection comes this middle-era Edo comb, which depicts a grasshopper busily eating while a larger animal looms. But are we seeing the animal’s horn, while his hungry eyes focus on that grasshopper? Or, does the line signify the larger animal’s tail, as he plods away completely unaware of the grasshopper’s existence. Japanese comb art plays with and mixes perspectives a lot, but this maki-e painting has all the players in one scene. The artist makes you imagine how each animal sees their world. In art school, teachers ask students, “What can you do with a line?” And I think this comb provides a wonderful answer because with one line, it goes from being beautiful to being great.
Late Edo: Here, a crayfish is folded over the comb, a Meiji characteristic. On the front, you only see half of it. Also the space for the picture is getting smaller, and the edges are getting rounder. So we have one foot in Meiji. But it is still one idea on a comb, which is Edo. Japan is moving from one emperor to another, as an artist draws a crayfish.
