Charlemagne Crown, Carolus Magnus

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I believe Diana Scarisbrick put Charlemagne’s original crown on the cover of her book, Royal Jewels: From Charlemagne to the Romanovs

A Carolus Magnus-style crown was also made in 1804 for Napoleon’s coronation.

What I like about Napoleon’s version is that the design resembles a Dogon crown in The Creative Museum. Its theme is the honor of ancestors, as the chief sits atop and remembers.

The Dogon people live in the central plateau region of Mali, south of the Niger River in West Africa.

Heavily involved in the slave trade, the French had established strong presence on the West African coast as early as 1659. Their port was in St. Louis, or present-day Senegal. If you look on a map, Senegal is but a few miles away from Mopti, Mali, home of the Dogon.

Do the crowns allow us to connect the dots?

The Poetry of Emperor Yao

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Ancient Chinese legends celebrate the wisdom, benevolence, and diligence of Emperor Yao (2356 – 2255 BC). In his poetry, he wrote, “The drum for raising alarms is now covered in deep moss, and the fowls are left undisturbed,” which referred to the drum he placed at his humble home’s gate. By speaking into it, his subjects could voice their concerns.

Japanese comb makers have portrayed Emperor Yao’s poem in both Edo and Meiji pieces, where a rooster guards the Emperor’s drum in a flower garden.

Here are two examples, both tortoiseshell painted with gold maki-e. The first is Edo from The Miriam Slater Collection, and the second is a Meiji comb for sale on Trocadero.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

Chinese classical mythology comics 6: monarch of Yao and Shun (Shun Emperor Yao’s visit to Yin Yao Abdication)

And She Danced with Diamonds in Her Hair

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Her mother died.

Her 9-year-old brother
was too young to lose a mother,
so she wrapped his sandwiches beautifully
and put toys in his lunch bags —
Every day.

She married Bernardo.
Had Natalia
Bernardo Jr.
Braulio.
Got up at 4 am to cook lunch plates.
A little extra money.
No time for sleep — Years.

Parties celebrate her children
Before they go out into the world.

Medical treatment is given when needed.

Prevention —
Esteem —
Selflessly transposed with detailed perfection.

What does she do for herself?
Nothing.

I can tell you from experience.
My friend Mother Earth,
Named after one who loved God — Looks,
But does not buy.

Last night —
The Sweet Sixteen.
She saw her beautiful daughter’s pax de deux with her father.

Then her moment came.

And she danced with diamonds in her hair.

American Eagle Combs

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When I meditate at Las Aguilas Ranch, golden eagles glide silently across the Rio Grande. Human conflict remains a distant noise, irrelevant to their command of the air. Yet native and immigrant Americans have idolized our national bird forever. Combs are no exception. Here are a few examples from the Creative Museum’s North American collection.

c. 1890, tortoiseshell, hinged.

c. 1910, back- and side-comb set, rhinestones.

c. 1890, a claw holds a ball, tortoiseshell

c. 1920, celluloid comb with an eagle motif

c. 1940, Tlingit shaman comb of an eagle eating a jaguar. The Tlingit are an indigenous people from the Pacific Northwest coast of Alaska.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

The American Eagle in Art and Design

Auguste Bonaz in the Machine

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The Industrial Revolution was built on the invention of new materials and the machines that allowed them to be mass produced into cheap products, quickly. The exploitation of sweatshop laborers had a profound impact on society. Plastic comb making was no exception.

In America, the most famous factory was in Leominster, Massachusetts. In France, combs were made in Oyonnax, an administrative region of Ain, which is located in the Rhône-Alpes. The town even has a Museum of the Comb and of the Plastics Industry.

Some of Auguste Bonaz’s combs were made there.

Today, collectors think only about the artwork, the artist, design genius, and have an image of a master carving a masterpiece with his own hands.

After 1900, however, women sat for 16 hours a day in front of hydroelectrically powered turning machines. Then the French mechanic Humbert adapted the band saw, which allowed plastic combs to be cut in patterns. In 1871, Lyon Vuillermoz invented a machine that enabled a worker to punch the pattern into the plastic with a single stroke of the arm.

Here is what the women who made plastic combs in Oyonnax looked like.

Here are some of Auguste Bonaz’s glorious designs that they might have made.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

The Comb: Its History and Development by Jen Cruse

Les matieres plastiques dans l’art contemporain: 23 mai-4 juillet 1992, exposition a Valexpo, Oyonnax (French Edition)

Comb Making in America

Plastic Jewelry of the Twentieth Century: Identification & Value Guide

Creative Museum: Haute Couture Combs

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Par le Creative Museum:

Les défilés de Haute Couture sont toujours attendus avec intérêt car on aime à être ébloui par la féerie de couleurs et de formes qui s’y déploient. Les grands couturiers donnent tout pouvoir à leur imagination pour concevoir des parures vestimentaires qui frappent le regard et soient en même temps appréciées au même titre que des œuvres d’art.

De ce fait, une création prendra tout son sens si elle est accompagnée des accessoires assortis. Coiffure, peignes, chapeau, maquillage, ceinture ou chaussures doivent ajouter une note particulière : soit accompagner, soit contraster ou encore renforcer un effet.

Il est donc intéressant d’observer les ornements de coiffure créés par les grands couturiers pour certains défilés car ils évoquent à eux seuls le monde de la mode et l’univers particulier des créateurs.

Comb by Chanel


Two combs with enamelled design, by Alexandre


High comb by Christian Dior

Pour voir plus de peignes par des designers de mode, rechercher Lea Stein, Alexandre, Chanel, Adrien Mann dans le Creative Museum:

Royal Wedding Jewelry: Princess Charlene of Monaco

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Princess Charlene of Monaco wore three modern tiaras, especially designed for her wedding to Prince Albert. We know of a San Antonio Wedding Video Company with a full portfolio of professionally filmed weddings

As an Olympic swimmer, she commissioned Van Cleef & Arpels to make the tiara for her Ocean Spray Parure, reflecting her love of the sea. I was just as fascinated by how it was made as I was by the beauty of the finished piece.

The second was a tiara of two floral brooches, which held her wedding veil. Instead of wearing it on top of her head, the tiara fell around her chignon at the bottom.

Lorenz Baumer designed a tiara where the diamonds rushed upwards, as if they were a wave at high tide.

Here is the video of how it was made.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is169_mhgjQ&w=560&h=349]

What horrifies me are the stories that Charlene tried to run away from this marriage three times. She didn’t want Prince Albert, who had fathered two children illegitimately, and she was crying as they walked out of the church. Jewelry should reflect the deepest happiness of the heart, not the imprisoning of one in lifelong misery. Look at her face.

Now, look at Kate.

Jen Cruse: Large Tortoiseshell High Backcomb

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This beautifully carved tortoiseshell comb is one of only three known to me. Two are in my collection and the third is in the collection of the Museum of London. Each comb varies slightly in format and also condition, and the carving techniques demonstrate the exceptional skill of the combmaker.

The decorative features of each comb originally included engraved emblems of rose, shamrock and thistle (all broken off on this example) together with the Prince of Wales feathers, further embellished with a crown and two fleur-de-lis in rolled gold; European in origin, it is possibly English-made and dates to the mid 1800s.

W 7¼ ins/18.4cm Ht 9 ins/22.9cm

Suggestive of royal connections, for whom these combs were designed or intended is uncertain. Were they to be worn by members of a Royal Court or were they expensive commemorative gifts to celebrate a Royal wedding?

Unfortunately I have been unable to find any precise information on this comb, its ‘sister’ comb featured on page 30 of my book or the Museum comb. Various theories exist but are purely speculative in the absence of reliable evidence.

कंघी

For more scholarly research, please examine

The Comb: Its History and Development

Moshi Monsters: Fashion in the Virtual World

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As models promenaded down the runway for the Fall 2012 Snaute Nausure season, one critic sniffed, “Wierd vibes have a way of surfacing in clothes. A runway is like a psychiatrist’s couch. Stuff just comes out.”

Not so for Moshi Monsters designer Snarl Swagerfeld of Ingestinel. The Moshi Snaute Nausure collection was a fabulous success, focusing on hair ornaments and tiaras with an anime theme. As Swagerfeld got his models out on time, he moved the curtain to hide Shoe Wars backstage between Gimme Poo and Growlin’Tino.

But all went well in the end. The last outfit payed homage to Coco Ingestinel’s 1932 Paris jewelry collection of golden tiaras and her neutral color palette of black, brown, and grey.