I love collecting .....

......jade hairpins and hair accessories, from a bygone era. My collection is mostly made  from jade, carnelian or silver and date from the Qing dynasty to early 20th Century. Hairpins are essentially objects of feminine beauty to decorate ladies hair. They have evolved  into tender gifts of love  from milady to hero as featured in many a lovers tale in Chinese novels and dramas. Adam Cheng's wistful ballad Purple Jade Hairpin also celebrates the romance of the hairpin.

Vintage and antique hairpins of jade carnelian and silver



 Not all the hairpins in my collection are in their original condition, some have been reworked with missing parts filled in, others are the remains of assemblages namely the jade, carnelian, coral or agate while the gold and silver content have been melted down for money.

The jade and carnelian carvings below are examples of  items disassembled from a large assemblage.

Remains of hairpins



Bottom most piece of a fish had been reworked by me into a dangle.

Hair pin shaped as a sword at one end and a fish at the other.



Hairsticks are the most basic design of hairpins and usually consist of a simple gilt or silver stick topped with a  jade charm. The five sticks shown below are examples.

Hairsticks with small jade charm tops



Many of these jade tops  get detached from the original sticks as the silver and gold content of the sticks can be melted down and converted into money. The remaining jade tops are  then recycled as jade charms, pendants, or amulets.

Small jade charms recycled from hairsticks



Lotus because of its association with purity and spirituality was a favorite design for milady's hairpin. Picture below shows one intact jade stick with a lotus and five other pieces of lotus sans the sticks

Lotus jade stick with remains of five other carved lotus

 Other jade carvings used in hair accessories can range from design of flowers, birds, hands, butterflies, flower basket etc. Below are some examples



butterflies and flowers



 lotus



Bird

Beautiful hands to emphasise beautiful hair

Besides jade, carnelian was also a favourite medium for hair pin carvings.

Carnelian florets

Some of the examples shown above are often described as buttons but I suspect they may  have served multi purposes, as components in a large or complicated hairpin, as a gentlemen's pin and brooches for example.

There are also hairpins carved from a single piece of jade or carnelian which are  cool.

This curved jade hair ornament is completely plain 



Carnelian and jade hairpins

Hairpin of  a goat and a dragon



 Not forgetting my silver hairpins

Silver hairpins

And here is a rare matching pair of insects with imperial green jade for the wings, coral for the eyes and pearl for the body set in silver gilt.

A pair of hairpins collected from a heritage house
 in Swatow, South China.



Finally my most elaborate hair ornament which I daresay is a reworked piece judging by the rather rough workmanship, nevertheless, still an exotic piece.

Hairpin made of carnelian, jade, coral twigs,  pearl and glass charms



This semi circular hairpin is composed of three bis (2 of white jade, one of carnelian) a pair of jade deers,  small coral and pearl beads, emerald green glass beads, a white jade flower, 2 small carnelian pendants, a pair of coral twigs,  a pair of carnelian bats and a pair of white jade carvings of  a bushy tailed squirrel guzzling on a nut .....oh  what an eclectic and enjoyable piece !

The central silver stick has the Chinese characters Ai Yu Zhou  (Love Jade Manufacture) inscribed on it.

ART IMITATES NATURE

Here are 2  tiny jade sculptures measuring about 1.5cm and 1.8cm each.   They look like fruits but what fruit is represented by their odd shape ?

Exotic jade fruit carving

According to a jade enthusiast friend, they are called "Buddha hands" after the exotic fruit  Citrus medica var sarcodactylis  or fingered citron.
 
To settle my curoisity I googled Buddha Hands fruit and found that such fruit hands are described as ...

  "  In China the Buddha’s Hand citron symbolizes happiness and long life, because its name, “fo-shou”, has those meanings when written with other characters. Chinese like to carry the fruit in their hands, place it on tables in their homes, and present it as a sacrificial offering at temple altars......
the Buddha’s Hand fruit was important by the 10th century A.D. in Fujian. Chinese artists classically depicted the fruit in jade and ivory carvings, in prints, and on lacquered wood panels "

With my interest piqued I tracked down this interesting fruit at our local market. Here is a picture of  one variety of the fruit.

Buddha Hands fruits, the Indonesian variety



large fruits and mini imitations in jade

 

Art imitates nature, so cute:)

 

These  hands with the fingers closed are somewhat different from those described in my earlier post  Beautiful Hands . But both are known as Buddha hands.

 

 I guess Hands is a much explored object in art.

 

 

Beautiful Hands

These beautiful jade hands are sometimes known as Fut Sow (Buddha Hands). I got them at a closing down sale. They are kind of newish (10-20 years) and I would not normally buy such stuff. But as the boss was clearing lock stock and barrel I thought they look kinda appealing and affordable.





For fengshui followers, Buddha hand is said to give people a strong support and ward off bad energy.

The smallest hand on the right is holding a piece of flat jade as well as a tiny bead clutched between thumb and forefinger. Now what can this be symbolic of, I wonder.