Dandelions and Dragonflies

Photo of a silver hair ornament. Rising from the comb base are 2 silver metal sticks. On top of each one is a jeweled dandelion seed head. The dandelion seeds are tiny dots of white enamel. The dandelion seed head on the left has been partially blown away. There is a dragonfly on each dandelion head. The wings are gold filigree. The lower body has a line of 8 rectangular black opals, large pink opals for eyes and upper body and a cluster of green demantoid garnets where the wings meet on the body. There is a tiny red ruby on top of each dragonfly head.

source

Created in 1904 by Louis C. Tiffany (yes, the stained glass guy), this hair ornament is amazeballs! Currently it lives at the Met Museum in New York but originally it was made for Louisine Havemeyer, one of Tiffany's patrons. You should check out her link in the rabbit hole - she was an interesting person!

Close up photo of the partially blown away dandelion seed head with a jeweled dragonfly on top of it.

source

From the Met Museum's site:

This hair ornament is one of the most remarkable works by Louis C. Tiffany, an artist who worked in virtually every media and is especially known for his leaded-glass windows and floral lampshades. Tiffany embarked on the design and fabrication of artistic jewelry just after the turn of the century and debuted it at the Pan-American Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. His earliest works are extraordinary evocations of nature, the artist's muse throughout his long and productive career. Here, capturing an ephemeral moment, two dragonflies alight on dandelion seed balls, one of which is partially blown away. Tiffany found beauty in one of the most common plants, seen not at the height of bloom but in a natural fading state, just before the seeds are scattered. The dragonflies feature shimmering black opals along their backs and dazzling pink opals as the heads, their coloristic properties evoking Tiffany's famed iridescent glass. Their delicate, gossamer-like filigree wings were likely intended to have slight movement - en tremblant - when the wearer turned her head.
Photo of a silver hair ornament. Rising from the comb base are 2 silver metal sticks. On top of each one is a jeweled dandelion seed head. The dandelion seeds are tiny dots of white enamel. The dandelion seed head on the left has been partially blown away. There is a dragonfly on each dandelion head. The wings are gold filigree. The lower body has a line of 8 rectangular black opals, large pink opals for eyes and upper body and a cluster of green demantoid garnets where the wings meet on the body. There is a tiny red ruby on top of each dragonfly head.

source

The tiara even has a special case!

The case for the dragonfly hair ornament. It is made of a dark wood, lined in green velvet and opens from the top and both sides. The hair ornament is inside, on a green velvet pedestal.

source

This short 2:25 video is narrated by one of the museum curators.

image of a white rabbit popping out of his rabbit hole, looking around, and going back in. His rabbit hole is surrounded by grass and some carrots in the ground.

When I first started using Zonelets I had Disqus set up as a commenting system but it looked obnoxiously ugly and I ditched it. Some people are happy to not have blog interaction but I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts you want to share! You can respond through my guestbook or email. If you found this link on Discord or the 32-Bit Cafe Discourse, you can message me there or leave a message on my Neocities profile page.