Victorian Algerian style hair comb

Victorian Algerian style hair comb made of gilded metal. This comb is richly decorated: the upper part is decorated with five chains made of mesh. The five chains are assembled by a buckle and form a complex pattern you fix at the back of the bun. The chains hold five tassel-like cones. This seven-tooth comb consists of a blond horn frame attached by a hinge to the gilded metal head. Middle of 19th Century, Circa 1850.

Dimensions: 9 cm x 11.7 cm
Maximum height of the headband: 3.7 cm
Dimension of a tassel: 3.5 cm

Condition: the horn structure is glued in the centre at the hinge. Two tiny lacks on tooth tips. Some oxidation and scratches.

Advice: the structure of the comb being rather heavy and the horn structure fragile, we advise you to make a very tight bun so that the weight of the comb does not weigh too much on its structure.

Weight: 70,63 gr

Historical point: these combs were generally called “Algerian comb” but some more complex models were also called “cascade combs”. It was in the 1840s that French-Algerian wars took place. This historical period caused exchanges and influences from Moorish art in French head jewellery designs until the 1870s. In the 1850’s and 1860’s, the Crimean War helped to popularise Turkish and Oriental designs in Britain. All these exchanges and influences brought the cone-shaped pendeloque motifs and the interlacing of chains of all shapes.