Edo and Meiji Kogai Sticks

Leave a reply

Earlier Meiji kogai sticks were long and flat, with gold maki-e decorations on each edge. Edo kogai sticks were shorter and thicker, carved just at the top. These Meiji tortoiseshell sticks come from The Creative Museum, while the Edo lacquer sticks reside in The Miriam Slater Collection.

This extraordinary early Meiji kogai stick belongs to the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD. It is gold, split like two sticks of bamboo, and depicts a sparrow flying through the trees.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Chinese and Japanese Hair Ornaments by The Creative Museum

The Combs and Ornamental Hairpins in the Collection of Miss Chiyo Okazaki

Ebay France: August Bonaz Cloud Comb — Faints :-)

Leave a reply

Following the love of clouds and wind in Japanese combs, August Bonaz put a French Art Deco twist to this design, where his clouds have small tines to symbolize rain. Bonaz was trying to tell us that “Every cloud has a silver lining.” It is elegantly curved, signed, and in splendid condition. A seller on Ebay France has listed it for € 450, or $622 as a Buy It Now. What is even better is that the auction mentions The Creative Museum’s Bonaz Collection as part of the comb’s provenance.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Costume Jewelry (DK Collector’s Guides)

Egyptian Ivory Comb: Before the Old Kingdom

Leave a reply

The Old Kingdom refers to Egypt, 3000 BC, when the country reached its first peak of civilization. However, historians date this comb to a few hundred years before that, and shows Egyptian art before recorded history.

It is an ivory ceremonial funeral comb of an elite person. Horizontal rows of animal figures suggest a style that became familiar in later Egyptian art. The choice of animals was not random, since elephants, snakes, birds, a giraffe, hyenas, and cattle appear on other carved ivory objects. The elephants standing on snakes may come from African creation myths, in which these two animals figure prominently. The comb resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art

In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt during the Old Kingdom

Ebay: Russian Comb by Faberge Workmaster Erik Kollin

Leave a reply

A tortoiseshell comb with an 18K gold bar decorated with rose- and white-gold sculpted flowers is selling for $1650 on Ebay France. It comes in its original box, with the maker’s name. EK: Erik August Kollin, Fabergé’s Finnish head workmaster until 1886. The first Faberge egg is also attributed to him.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Faberge: Imperial Craftsman and His World

Faberge: The Forbes Collection.

Sotheby’s: Indian Mughal Comb

Leave a reply

This ivory comb was made in North India, as the Mughal Empire reached the height of power in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The dynasty was founded in 1526 by Persian Sunni Muslims of Turkish-Mongol descent, hence the name, Mughal. The empire included Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and North India, among other lands. Condition: Perfect. Sale price: 15,000 GBP on May 31, 2011.

कंघी

The Mughal Empire (The New Cambridge History of India)

Creative Museum Triumphs at Le Musée d’Angoulême

Leave a reply

Today, The Creative Museum walked in the front door of Le Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angoulême, France.

Thirty combs from the family, who devoted 30 years to comb scholarship, were combined with headdresses from the Antoine de Galbert collection. The exhibition was called EN TÊTE À TÊTE.

It divided combs and headdresses to show four cultural themes: birth and initiation, marriage, social status, and death.

The Creative Museum made a film tour of the exhibition. Look at how many people came to learn.

The galleries were packed.

Thank you, Alain, Catherine, and Joel for making a “dent in the universe” and bringing hair combs to the environment in which they belong.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

The catalog from this exhibition, which will be available in the museum shop soon. Or, you can contact the museum and request a copy.

Ebay: Whale Bone Maori Heru Comb

3 Replies
On Oct. 9, 2011, a dealer on E-bay listed this comb and described it as “Old African? Large “oxbone” comb; elegant!” The starting price was $9.95. He made himself look like an idiot beyond comprehension. Everyone who bid thought it was an old Māori whale-bone Heru comb. It ended up selling for $2576.00

However, the comb was dubious. The carving was not correct. The material had no grain. Whale bone has grain. Sperm-whale bone also has some grain.  Although I did not record the exact measurements, the comb’s size indicated that it could have only come from the ivory tooth of an elephant. A whale tooth couldn’t possibly have been that big.

Here is the front and the back of this fake comb.

The back showed that the coloration of the sides was not congruent with the potential age it was supposed to be. The spikes were too uneven. Also, it did not have a single nick on the edge.

Here is a real one: the front and back of a 19th Century whale-bone Heru comb from North Island, New Zealand, which is in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand. It is 65 mm wide and 165mm long. The carver is unknown.

This is a picture of how it was worn by a warrior. The picture also comes from the Museum of New Zealand. In Māori culture, men wore their hair long with a top knot. The Heru was inserted behind the top knot. These combs only decorated the heads of top-ranking men. They were a symbol of mana, or status and prestige.

There is a Māori myth surrounding Heru combs. In 1200, Rua-tupu, the second son of Chief Uenuku, wore a Heru without permission. These combs could only be worn by the elder sons. His father belittled him. To get revenge, Rua-tupu took children of tribal noblemen into his canoe, traveled far into the ocean, and sank the boat. It is an incident in Maori history called “Te huri-pure-i-ata.” His older brother, Kahutia-te-rangi survived with the help of a whale, and his name changed to Paikea, or whale rider. The myth says Paikea had the help of the goddess Moa-kura-manu.

Heru combs like these depict Kahutia-te-rangi, or Paikea (the small carving on the left) riding the whale.

कंघी

With thanks to Mark Blackburn, Pierre Loos, Hugues Bienaymé, Charles Moreau, David Norden, Maureen Zarember, Jyrki Lammi, Guy Vdp, and Kajetan Fiedorowicz.

For more scholarly research, please examine

Te Ika a Maui: Or, New Zealand and Its Inhabitants. Illustrating the Orgin, Manners, Customs, Mythology, Religion … of the Maori and Polynesian … Productions, and Climate of the Country

Jen Cruse: Art Nouveau Horn Combs

Leave a reply

By Jen Cruse:

The Art Nouveau period was a turning point in design principals where imagination and free-flowing creativity were of the essence. The emphasis was on a return to hand craftsmanship and away from increasing industrialization. In Europe between c. 1895 and 1910, a revival in the use of horn was led by René Lalique, Lucien Gaillard and their contemporaries.

Clarified horn bleached with hydrogen peroxide, sometimes frosted, was their favoured material. These innovative artists created some of the most imaginative and naturalistic designs ever seen, and their influence spread around Europe to other like-minded artists. Hair combs and pins especially gained enormous recognition owing to their supreme quality and are much sought after by collectors today. The Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, has a most impressive collection of Lalique’s work, including a great number of his combs.

The 2 bleached horn combs featured in the photograph display tinted openwork with daisy flowers and a dragonfly. They are carved in the style of the Parisian Art Nouveau artist/designers. Although unsigned, they have been attributed to Mme E Bonté working in the early 1900s.

Horn Combs of Elizabeth Bonté. Ht 3½in/8.9cm to 4in/10.2cm.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

The Comb: Its History and Development, by Jen Cruse

Ebay: Empire Comb Prices

3 Replies

After the big September 23rd auction, there have been three French combs, c.1790 – 1850, which went for varying prices. The one that sold for $315 was a steal because the photograph did not show its complexity, nor my instinct that there were pearls dangling from the gilt circles decorated with lapis flowers. Here is the record of what sold, when, and for how much:

Coral Empire comb. Superb Condition. Sold: $1045.51, Oct. 5, 2011. Ebay France.

French Tiara comb with pearls and lapis jewels surrounded by seed pearls, c. 1800, Sold: $616.58, Oct. 5, 2011, Ebay France.

French Empire comb, lapis enamel flowers on gilded silver with dangling pearls, excellent condition, Sold: $315, Oct. 6, 2011, Ebay.com