Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21.12

c21.12

But it is necessary to return to the immediate subject before us, and in so doing, we may speak next of combs. The number and variety of Sinhalese ivory combs is surprising. Their general characteristics are well shown in Pls. XXXIX. and XL. and need little further detailed description beyond what is given in the explanations of the Plates. The combs are most often elaborately carved, and often fretted, but occasionally more severe and plain. Figure and genre subjects, plant and geometrical ornament abound. In the case of figure subjects we find two ways of treating the back: either the back and front are identical, so that the figure faces both ways; or the back of the figure is treated as such, and figure faces one way only. Of the combs illustrated on Pl. XXXIX., No. 4 is of a very unusual form, No. 6 is almost unornamented, but none the less finely designed, and No. 2, perhaps the most beautiful, is of bone, as is also No. 11 on Pl. XL. The comb shown in Fig. 10 on Pl. XXXIX. shows traces of colouring.