In yesterday's post, we explored the idea of revamping fingernail guards for a contemporary and striking accessory concept. However, Taipei's National Palace Museum boasts a rich collection of accessories beyond fingernail guards, including intricate hairpins and hair ornaments that offer exciting possibilities for reinvention.
Accessories and ornaments played a vital role in the traditional societal ritual system. The Garland of Treasures section of the museum, includes quite a few examples, often used as tributes from officials and foreign visitors to the courts, along with products of commercial trade. These objects were usually exquisitely crafted and made from refined materials and for personal adornment.
The craftsmanship of these ornaments skillfully blends techniques such as metalworking, pearl and kingfisher feather inlaying, wood carving, and the use of gemstones.
In ancient China, mature women commonly styled their hair in elaborate updos, and these accessories not only secured but also embellished these intricate hairstyles, with trends evolving across different dynasties.
An illustration of these hairstyles is found in the Song dynasty painting "Refusing the seat" from the National Palace Museum, depicting a Han dynasty story about the emperor allowing his favored consort Lady Shen to sit in the area reserved to the emperor and the empress.
In the painting, the minister Yuan Ang admonishes the emperor on the wrongfulness of this action as sitting next to the emperor would have disrupted the proper order of hierarchy. Consorts with various coiffures, offering a unique glimpse into the diversity of hairstyles and embellishments during that period, can be seen surrounding the emperor.
These coiffures favored a range of hair accessories, including pins, banded coronets, combs, pronged pins, and decorative elements with dangling tassels or pearls that swayed as the wearer moved. Forehead ornaments also included embroidered bands and fan-shaped elements draping down from the hairline.
The forms and decorative patterns of these accessories are diverse, using various materials and featuring inlaid elements, stones, and gems to convey opulence and refinement.
Highlighted examples from the museum's collection include coral hairpins with bird and flower decoration or cloud-and-dragon decoration from the Jiaqing (1796-1820) and the Yongzheng reigns (1723-1735); a Qing Dynasty gilt silver earpick-hairpin adorned with characters of Peace, As You Wish, and Miriad Longevity in coral seed beads, as well as gilt silver hairpins with kingfisher feather and gemstone inlays, or in the form of a chrysanthemum blossom.
Dragonflies, butterflies and auspicious symbols were popular motifs, and headdress ornaments and crosspieces were also favored, often integrating kingfisher feather and inlays of pearls, jewels, jadeite, jade, gemstones, tourmaline, and tortoiseshell.
The last four images in this post show a selection of crosspieces and headdress ornaments: they look like simple rectangular bars, but they incorporate delicate or intricate decorative patterns that go from peony flowers embedded with powder-green jade and emerald jade forming the branches, to inlays of pearls and longevity motifs or auspicious cloud patterns on vibrant green jade.
This journey into the world of hairpins and headdresses from Taipei's National Palace Museum reveals that these pieces combined artistry, cultural heritage, symbolic richness and personal expression. Pick your favorite – be it for the colour, decoration, or inlaid materials – from the selection in this post or browse the museum collection for further inspirations.
