Lalique Hair Combs and Tiaras
Victorian diamond brooches came with different settings, so they could be worn separately or together as a tiara. Art Nouveau brooches could also serve multiple purposes. Indeed, some were designed as...
View ArticleThe Hair Comb Market
There are so many beautiful things for sale, each with their own story, that to condense a post into one subject is difficult. So I have a buffet of things today. Just click the picture or link to see...
View ArticleEdward Villella
I live an aleatory life. The butterfly effect brings the most incredible improvisations to what is supposed to be my quiet, reflective existence. So it was, one twilight, I found myself talking to a...
View ArticleAuctions: Hair Ornaments for Sale
There are some lovely pieces coming up for sale. At Christie’s on 19 March 2015, the Chinese art work in the collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth goes on sale. Five pieces are worth noting. This...
View ArticleAuction News: Ivory and Jade Bracelets
I love what age does to round things. Here are some bracelets up for auction. At Christie’s are “two Jade Bracelets from Southeast China, Neolithic Period (3000 BC): Each a tapering, thick-walled ring,...
View ArticleComing Soon on the Blog: Book Reviews
I am very pleased that the blog will be able to offer book reviews on the latest work in ethnic jewelery.
View ArticleAuction News
Sotheby’s In September of 2010, jewelry designer Ann Ziff opened her store on Madison Avenue, Tamsen Z. After specializing in barrettes, she started creating jewelry in all forms. On 6 April 2015, the...
View ArticleDiamond Hair Combs and Tiaras
Tiaras have been an essential part of a woman’s wedding dowry since the Middle Ages. As early as the 1850’s, aristocratic women bought sets of diamond sprays and brooches. Delicately set in platinum...
View ArticleAuctions: Pre-Columbian, Indian, and Islamic Jewelry
On 15 May 2015: African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art: Sotheby’s. Among the jewelry for sale is this large gold frog pendant (800 – 1500 AD) from the Coclé civilization of modern-day Panama....
View ArticleIndian Combs of Love and Perfume
One day in 1819, an Indian tiger noticed a party of British hunters. They were obviously lost and thirsty, so the tiger led them to a cave where there was water and went on his way. The Western Ghat...
View ArticleLalique’s Sea Holly Comb
Decay is sensual in itself. The Mediterranean Sea Holly’s cone flower turns brown in the fall, and its silvery blue bracts cannot hold water anymore. In a flower’s life cycle, death comes without...
View ArticleBook Review: Berber Women of Morocco
Like a nomad gazing at the night sky, a ceiling of stars covered the main room of the 2014 exhibition, Berber Women of Morocco, at the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves St. Laurent in Paris. Each tribe’s...
View ArticleCreative Museum: Stones, Leaves, Scissors
The Creative Museum just played a significant part in another exhibition at the Montelimar Miniature Museum. STONES, LEAVES, SCISSORS is about hair ornaments made in three different ways. Whether an...
View ArticleTang Dynasty Hair Comb at the Smithsonian
Recently, the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Institution put 40,000 Asian and American works of art online. This magnificent hair comb is one of them. I felt it was...
View ArticleSri Lankan Hair Pins — Formerly Ceylonese and Singalese
The hairpins known as Kondakoora emanate from Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. Often erroneously described as Mughal or Turkish turban pins, they were traditional to the low-country regions of southern Sri...
View ArticleCreative Museum: From the Ottomans to the Qajars
The boundaries of the Ottoman and Persian Empires often overlapped over the course of history Their art has been enriched by many outside influences such as Central Asian, Indian, and even Chinese....
View ArticleSikhs and Sikh Combs
An important comb type, little publicised and infrequently encountered, is a notable feature of the orthodox Sikh community whose peoples, now dispersed throughout the world, originated mainly from the...
View ArticleWhen You Give Your Combs Away
Mortality comes to us all. My art is the fire that illuminates my home, the warmth that protects me from the freezing waters of a refugee-filled sea — but I’ve seen the videos. Is it morally possible...
View ArticleVictorian Ivory Combs in the 1860’s
As love’s fire became firelight, Mary E. wrote on the inside of her comb box, “This is for Carrie M. Golches. Mary E [last name].” Another’s pen added, “She passed away about 1923, age 91.” The script...
View ArticleThe Taj of Azerbaijan
By Aynur Mammadova, assistant to Dr. Shirin Melikova, Director of the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum Crown of the Bride, the Taj was an uncommon and precious headdress in the Western Caucasus regions. In...
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