Hard Tissue Hairpins

Here are some hairpins and a comb made from hard tissues, including bone, anlter, cow's horn, water buffalo horn and a lot of strange materials. There is a very wide variety of symbols and other themes in the designs.

Shell Hairpins

Here are some very fragile shell hairpins and combs.Unfortunately the museum curator broke a lot of these!

Bone Hairpins

Here are some "bone" hairpins, some of them made from cow bone and some of them made out of deer antler. Two of the bone hairpins have been dyed to imitate the more expensive coral.

Horn hairpins (cow horn or sheep horn)

Here are some horn hairpins. Some of them made from cow horn (the light brown ones) and some of them are made from the horns of water buffalo (dark brown). Cow horn is sometimes characterised by light and dark bands or grain. Horn is much easier to carve than bone and it can be made soft and flexible by heating in water. On the hairpin with the curly ends this heating has made the horn lighter in colour and transparent.

One of the hairpins below is made from a porcupine quill. Another of the objects is made from tortoiseshell. Can you identify which ones they are?