I wanted this. This absolutely one of the most beautiful tiaras I’ve ever seen. Superb coral cameos, gilt bronze, black flowers, French, 1840, Empire style, gorgeous, even though a few pieces are missing. It sold for $787 on Nov. 9. It had a tortoiseshell comb attached. The vision on this one is beautiful.
Just because I didn’t think we needed to see the swastika comb forever as the blog’s first post, I’m putting up a picture of me in Susan Maxwell Schmidt’s pearl geisha hair sticks she made just for me! That’s because I send her lots of exclamation points in my emails every time I receive one of her creations. LMAO. She’s going to kill me for saying that. Anyway, they are gorgeous, and I love them. Soon, a “some lovely things on ebay” post. Cheers!
On Nov 1, this swastika celluloid comb sold on ebay for $85. You may refer to auction #270296247509. Someone made this is the late 30s or early 40s. A woman bought it and wore it. She must have valued it highly, as it was not worn very much. A dealer bought it at an estate sale.
I kept this photo a long time. Under ebay’s Judaica section, this was listed as a comb for the dead. It was used by Jews in concentration camps to comb the lice out of dead people’s hair. The dealer wanted $275 for it. I couldn’t bear to buy it.
This is part of a page from “Memorial to the Jews Deported from France, 1942-1944” by Serge Klarsfeld. He won a Nobel Prize for this. The list of names takes up 645 “8.5×11” pages. When both my grandfathers escaped the Czar’s Cossacks in 1906, they chose to get on a boat to the United States, and when they arrived, they saw the Statue of Liberty. If my family had chosen another boat, I would have never been born.
c. 1900, this pearl and diamond tiara was designed with garlands of open-work floral and foliate motifs. Est price: $176,000. The tiara may be detached in five parts and used as a diadem, a smaller tiara or as a pendant on a fine chain.
By family tradition this necklace was previously part of a tiara made by Fabergé in the 1860s and later redesigned as a neckalce by Buccellati in the early 1990s. It was owned by Countess Orloff Davidoff is the only daughter of Baron de Staal, late Russian ambassador to England, and was worn at her wedding. c. 1860. The necklace, pictured here, sold for $121,381 on 12 November 2008.
RobotGrrl Etsy Store: When you’re an online community professional, the capitalism of venture investors, programming automation, networks, design, animation, AI, business planning, and staff is vital to the ever bigger member-numbers needed to make a profit and create fabulous virtual worlds. The original dream of one soul touching another has changed, but sometimes you find it anyway.
Such a treasure became real for me, when RobotGrrl, a teen I nurtured at Habbo and HabboHut Radio, used her science genius to make me a custom styrobot. She went to an elite three-week program at Stanford University specializing in robotics, and I am convinced she will work at NASA, Pixar, or maybe even become a toymaker. Her possibilities are endless, and I have been thrilled to mentor her over the 4 1/2 years I’ve been at Habbo.
She made me a dancing robot toy, decorated with Myrna’s enamel combs, and my favorite Robert Frost poem that she wrote herself on the back. Then she put green fluffy hair on it, and a hair comb bow. I then tried it out with different combs, and put my small red Bonaz in it, and it sits on my desk, a reminder that communities emerged on the Internet without a marketing person in sight. A reminder that my theory of souls touching across wires still lives, no matter what life brings.
I urge everyone to go to RobotGrrl’s Etsy Store and ask for a custom piece out of your own imagination. You will meet a great artist, roboticist, scientist, and GIRL!
Here is the video of how it dances.
And here are the images I took of my custom bot.
A tortoiseshell comb with intricate scrollwork and garnets by British arts-and-crafts movement master-jeweler Child & Child, with makers mark on the back and fitted case, sold for $691 in London.
This beautiful English 18K-gold carnelian cameo demi-parure, c. 1830, comes with a ring and earrings.
These late Edo Japanese combs sold for $1026. I love the flock of gold-maki-e flock of birds.
This art deco tortoiseshell Cartier comb bordered with enamel and diamonds, with case, has an estimated value of $4000 and will go on sale in Geneva on Nov 20.
When the Shah ruled Iran, his Empress Farah wore this tiara to her wedding, and it remained her favorite throughout her life.
This absolutely exquisite sapphire and diamond tiara is part of a demi-parure with a necklace and pin, c. 1830. The sapphires accent a floral-spray design. Lot estimate $500,000. This just takes my breath away.
William Bouguereau, 1825-1905, loved to paint portaits of young French peasant girls, in the hope that he could raise their humble status to become icons. When he painted this at the turn of the century, industry was threatening the agrarian way of life. In this picture a young girl brushes her long wind-blown brown hair away from her mona-lisa eyes in a bit of a guilty look because her other hand hides a pilfered pear. However humble, Bouguereau gives his model monumental stature. I loved her hair, I could look at her eyes forever. The painter elevates the feelings of a simple girl to the universal feelings of us all. This painting will sell at Sothebys on Oct 23 for an estimated $900,000 to $1,200,000. I wonder what kind of a life she had.
It belongs to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and usually resides in the Second Chamber of the Gold Room. It was found in 1913, when N. Veselovsky excavated the Solokha Barrow. Epic Scythian legend recounts the quarrel between three brothers seen as the founders of the Scythian tribe. The battle has been portrayed many times in different media.
Scholars feel the comb was created between the 5th and 4th Century BC, when the Scythian king was killed by his own brothers for his love of Greek culture. At some time in the first third of the 4th century BC, the comb was placed on the head of the victor, Octamasad, whose tomb was placed inside the grandiose 18 metre barrow earlier erected for his brother Orik. This tomb was robbed in Antiquity, but the comb survived.
What I find ironic is that combs are the territory of women, but this most famous one was about war and made for a man.
There have been some really interesting, unusual combs that sold recently. Here is a small sample.
This reproduction of an ancient Indian comb worn by a queen might belong culturally to the Sikh sect of Hinduism, which had a Kanga, a small-toothed comb worn in the hair. This plot depicts Lord Krishna and his beloved Rahda, erotically posed, as girls dance around him. The dance, or sport, is called Raas Leela, where the birth of the Shri Krishna is celebrated by gopis, or devotees who forget all worldly thoughts in place of love for him. It sold for only $32.
The next two things that caught my eye were two silver kanzashis because their designs were so beautifully balanced with flowers, birds, and ideas. These sold for $132.50 and $86 in September.
Third today, is a beautiful Edo kogai stick, with gold maki-e decorations on the ends. But there is a three-dimensional perspective in the way the houses are set amongst the trees, lakes, and flowers in a rural Japanese villiage. It sold for only $31 on Sept. 28.
Now, we’ll go to France, for two celluloid combs decorated with two tones of aluminium, a very valuable material at its time of discovery. They sold for $162. 50 on Oct. 2.
Last is a dark tortoiseshell Victorian pique comb with a raised piece that contains a greek key pattern bookmarked by two stars. I wonder if the pique is machine or hand done. The condition was perfect, but the seller wanted $530 for it, and it did not sell.
I talked to Jovy in the Madison Ave store, and now the pieces I used to pay $600 for are now $4300, and she said the women from Paris are flying over to NYC to buy them because of the exchange rate. So I felt, well, I have my collection of Alexandre Paris haute couture, and that will just have to be it.
BUT
I found one from Hong Kong that was selling for $195 in the original box from the store, and they showed pics of the name, and I know this was a genuine couture piece. It was over. I bought it at an offer price of $180. I wear an Alex barrette or snood every single day. My 50th birthday is coming up in a month. I will love this and wear it A LOT. ;-) I’m going to tell Jovy. Ha! But I have to tell you. This is the first Alex couture piece I’ve seen on ebay in the 5 years I’ve been searching. You may refer to auction #260289856340.
The flower is made of suede with hand-beaded crystals by a French haute couture attelier.