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!
On June 19, 2010, Crown Princess Victoria married her personal trainer, Daniel Westling. She wore the same cameo tiara, her mother wore to her own wedding on the same day in 1976. Cameos adorn the center of a gold and pearl frame. Greek mythological characters Cupid and Psyche grace the center cameo.
Here is her mother Queen Sylvia smiling with true happiness, and of course a drop-dead diamond tiara worn with an pink-topaz necklace, earrings, and pin.
Here, diamond laurel-leaf tiaraed Crown Princess Mathilde of Belgium speaks to diamond floral tiaraed Princess Letizia of Spain.
This is a lovely picture of Queen Margaret II of Denmark. It takes tremendous style to pull off a green dress like that, but she does it magnificently. Her pearl and diamond parure does not hurt.
The Greeks did it. Rodin did it. All sculptors made hair out of clay. This particular piece is by Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920), who signed it and pointed out that in the rear of the sculpture, there was limestone. It is 25 1/4 inches high and was made c. 1910. The lady is even wearing a tiara to hold back her hair, parted in the middle. In Christie’s “Art Impressionniste et Moderne” sale this June in Paris, its estimated value is $4,935,457 – $7,403,185.
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.
Napoleon had jeweler Alexandre-Gabriel Lemonnier (circa 1808-1884) make this piece c. 1850. In the Louis XVI style, a filigree silver-gilt mount is over crusted with 1998 small diamonds. They surround much larger pearls, and give them absolute priority. The largest drop-shaped pearl in the top-most position is believed to be the “Perle Napoleon”
Here is Empress Eugenie wearing it.
With baroque pearls and natural diamonds, this tiara consists of two branches of flower vine leaves. The tiara probably had additional frames, but they are no longer available. It comes in its original box. c. 1900. It is up for auction at Christies for $37,000.
This silver brooch is a character in another Russian fairy tale. A knight tries to find the magic garden, wherein resides the water of life. He flies on winged horses. This horse is made of silver, white, and yellow gold. His wings are jeweled with white, blue, and pink diamonds.
One of the water kings of the Russian fable underworld, this dragon horse uses Faberge’s color palette of jewels: colored diamonds, paraiba tourmalines (they contain a bit of copper, are neon green or blue, and come from Paraiba, Brazil), and Padparadscha sapphires (they are orange).
Many times, a brooch had two fittings. One to enable the woman to wear it as a pin, and another to permit the brooch to be worn as a comb. I had a call from Geneva, Switzerland, today offering me access to the modern Faberge jewelry site. Breathtakingly designed brooches, which could easily accompany a bun. I asked the price of the seahorse and was told $250,000. LMAO. A little out of my price range, but gorgeous jewelry is gorgeous jewelry. Enjoy the poetry.
This first image is of the Firebird, an old Russian fairy tale that Stravinsky made into one of the most famous ballets in the repertoire. It has over 100 diamonds, highlighted with sapphires, rubies, amethysts, opals, and moonstones.
The next piece comes from another Russian fairy tale, The Crimson Rose, and is saturated with the finest pink-red rubies, offset with white and yellow diamonds.
Last is a magnificent seahorse, which recalls the Kingdom of the Blue Sea in the Russian Fable of Sadko. It is set with violet sapphires, yellow and violet diamonds, and wrapped in white-diamond seaweed.
Recently I bought this comb on ebay.
But what was it? I had a similar barrette from the English company who invented silver plate, but was this from the same company? Was it English? I set out on a research-finding tour. Surprise or surprises, the marks on the comb indicated that it was made in the Netherlands for export in 1925. The first picture tells us it’s Dutch. The second picture matches a Q to 1925.
Isn’t research fun? :-)
This agate, cameo, and gold tiara is part of a complete parure, c. 1840. The tiara has a graduated series of five pinkish brown and brownish gray agate cameos, each sculpted in high relief. They depict profiles of various figures. Cameos with different colored accessories are the most valued. These have pinkish brown agate accessories, including feathers, jewelry and wreaths. They reside within a sculpted gold scroll.
Are we really supposed to resist this?
Edwardian, pearl and diamond tiara, c. 1900.