This beautiful 18K-gold, pearl, and lapis Victorian crown-shaped tiara on a tortoiseshell comb is a magnificent example of period artwork, c.1850. However, it is selling on Ruby Lane for $4850. There is the slightest of damage to the last tine on the right, but I don’t think it devalues the piece. But $4850? I guess it’s a Sotheby’s price. The enamel comb I showed a few posts down sold at Sotheby’s for 9375 GBP. Good luck to the dealer. It is beautiful.
This set of three combs, two for the sides, one for the back, c. 1850, was probably French, as its gilt decorations depict the Napoleonic style. Central to the motif is the Eagle of Mexico, as pearls detail throughout. They sold for $3088.
Just after the Allies won the Second World War, John and Ruth Boland acquired this Alexander Calder brooch/barette at the Paris Exhibition in Washington, DC. The year was 1944. Calder started making jewelry in the 1940’s, and of course hair ornaments were included. The inventiveness of these small pieces later influenced his larger works. This brooch/barrette sold in 2006 for $192,000 at Sothebys.
A revival tiara with three enamel portraits of 15th-century women, hinged to a faux tortoiseshell comb sold for $496 on July 1. The portraits were framed in silver in the middle of a highly ornamented silver tiara with paste red and blue stones. It was a beautiful Victorian Renaissance Revival piece, c. 1870.
There is also a 14K gold eagle, signed P Brandt, hinged to a three-pronged tortoiseshell hair pin in its original box.
On July 16, Sotheby’s is auctioning this jaw-dropping Victorian hair comb, c.1895. The top is hinged onto a tortoiseshell comb. In the center is an opal, surrounded by stylized roses and leaves in plique-à-jour polychrome enamel. It’s estimated value is 3,000 – 5,000 UKP. It sold for 9375 GBP.
He changed the imagination of the world for all time. Here are an orchid, and something I’ve never seen before: hair sticks with a bouquet of coral flowers on top, very geisha, very Japonisme. The cattleya orchid is made of ivory, gold, enamel, horn, and diamonds and resides in the Cleveland Museum of Art, c.1903-1904. The coral flowers grace the MuseeD’Orsay in Paris, c. 1902.
This is a replica of a comb, which Auguste Bonaz made for the Algiers Exposition in commemoration of the centenary of Algeria in 1930. The original was celluloid, and he chose the Spanish Mantilla style in his design.
One of the things I saw on my honeymoon was the diamond exhibit at the Houston Museum of Science. One diamond tiara worn over a tight top bun by Selma Hayek to a White House dinner and a Cartier diamond barrette survived to become web pictures, so here they are. 
This comb, called Marbella, has two interlocking intricate pieces, one white, one black. Each is decorated asymetrically with rhinestone-encrusted flowers. Ateliers in Paris only made 4 of them. This is a magnificent piece of modern art.
Similarly, this camelia barrette with leaves that look spontaneously placed decorating a plethora of crystals, is also a rare piece.
Henry Wilson (1864-1934) made this crystal & chalcedony tiara with wings of gold on either side, and Cupid in the centre. The tiara is c.1908 and resides in the Victoria and Albert Museum. He was a leading figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement and was described as the “arch individualist.” His authored ‘Silver work & Jewellery,’ which was published in 1903.