Several examples can be seen at Toiletries Through the Ages, including an Egyptian wooden double-sided comb, a Scythian gold comb, a medieval composite double-sided bone comb, and an ivory double-sided comb.

Also check out reenactors' webpages about creating period-style combs, and other related links, in the Antler Combs section of the Atlantian A&S Links.

• Gold comb with Scythians in battle, 5th-4th centuries BC
• Wooden comb, Gallo-Roman, 1st-4th centuries
• Ivory comb, India, 2nd century
• Bone comb from South Shields, 2nd-4th century
• Antler bone comb from Roman-occupied Britain
• Ivory comb of Modestina, Roman, 3rd-4th centuries
• Bone comb, 4th-5th centuries
• Antler comb and another antler comb, Winchester (Roman Britain), 4th or early 5th century
• Double-sided combs made from antler from Anglian York
• Horn and bronze comb, 5th century
• Bone combs from the 5th-7th centuries
• Bone combs, Frankish/Merovingian, 5th-8th centuries; another Frankish/Merovingian bone comb
• Bone/antler comb and comb-case from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Buckland, Kent
• Bone and antler comb from an early Saxon settlement in Hammersmith, 6th century
• Ivory liturgical comb (called "St. Berthuin's comb"), 6th century
• An ivory comb carved with a sitting figure and three standing figures, 7th century
• The so-called Comb of Theodelinda, ivory with silver and sapphires, made in Lombardy in the 7th century
• Bone combs and case, 6th-8th centuries
• Comb from Anglo-Saxon Canterbury, described thus: "Made from animal bone with iron rivets to secure side plates. The use of recycled animal bone was very common in the past. Decorated with 'ring and dot' design."
• Eighth century ivory comb found in an Anglo-Saxon house
• Ivory liturgical comb with a design of two young women's heads, 8th century
• Ivory liturgical comb (called "St. Hubert's comb"), 8th century
• Bone combs from Westminster, late 8th century to 9th century
• Bone comb, 8th-10th centuries
• Two late Saxon combs from Longmarket
• Ninth century ivory liturgical comb associated with Saint Loup (towards bottom of webpage)
• The so-called Comb of St. Heribert, c. 851-900
• Ivory comb depicting either Sampson or David with a lion, made in Metz around 875-900
• Antler comb with matching case, Viking, 9th-10th century, from York, England
• Viking-age composite combs: SHM 5208:573, SHM 5208:574, SHM 7582, SHM 9549, SHM 25501, SHM 28047
• Viking-age double combs: SHM 6209
• Composite single comb, Swedish, 9th-11th century
• Viking combs and other tools for grooming
• Photos of combs at the Historisk museum in Oslo
• Viking bone and antler combs
• Gilded comb top, Liao dynasty China, 10th century
• Ivory comb with stylized horses, 10th century
• Boxwood comb with poker worked ornaments, Colletire, France, early 11th century
• The comb of St. Ulrich, 11th century?
• Delousing comb and scissors found on the Serçe Limani shipwreck, 1020s
• Antler tooth-plate fragment from a composite comb found in York dating to the 11th century
• Gilt liturgical double-comb, 11th century
• Liturgical comb, ivory, 11th century
• St. Hadelin's comb, 11th-12th century
• Double one-piece comb made of antler, Swedish, 11th-12th century
• Liturgical comb (reliquary of St. Hadelin), ivory, Meuse river yalley, 11th-12th century
• Ivory comb, late 11th century, found in Wales
• An ivory comb, possibly made in southern Italy, c. 1080-1120
• Bone comb, 1100-1220, Finland
• The comb of the Mother of God, from the cloister of the Sisters of the Holy Ghost, c. 1101-1150
• The beard-comb of the Holy Roman Emperor, ivory with gold and precious stones, 12th century
• Saint Albans liturgical comb, ivory, made in 1120
• Viking-age or early medieval double comb found at Broby bro
• English Liturgical comb decorated with scenes from the life and martyrdom of Thomas Becket, ivory, ca. 1200-1210
• Zodiac: the sign of the Ram, Georgius Zothorus' Liber astrologiae (BNF Lat. 7330, fol. 7), 2nd quarter of the 13th century
• Bone combs, 13th century
• Bone combs, 12th-13th century; another bone comb, 12th-13th century
• Ivory comb with two birds in circles, southern Italy, 13th century
• Fragment of an ivory comb with the legend of St. Clemens, c. 1201-1215
• Fragment of a French ivory comb with religious scenes, 1250-1300
• Composite double comb, Swedish, 13th-15th century
• Hell, a bible (BNF Fr. 13096, fol. 86v), 1313
• Ages of Man: Youth combs his hair, the De Lisle Hours (PML G.50, fol. 29r), 1316-1331
• Mural cycle showing the processing of silk and flax at the Kanonikerhaus in Constance, Germany, c. 1320: one woman combs another woman's hair
She hadde bath, sche hadde reste,
And was arraied to the beste.
Bot with no craft of combes brode
Thei myhte hire hore lockes schode,
And sche ne wolde noght be schore
For no conseil, and thei therfore,
With such atyr as tho was used,
Ordeinen that it was excused,
And hid so crafteliche aboute,
That noman myhte sen hem oute.

Confessio Amantis,
Incipit Liber Primus: Part 1,
ll. 1747-1756

• A dog holds a comb (fol. 101v) and a monkey holds a comb & mirror (fol. 117v), the DuBois Hours (PML M.700), c. 1325-1330
• The Luttrell Psalter (British Library MS. ADD. 42130), c. 1325-1335: In this illustration of a servant dressing a lady's hair (fol. 63), there is a double-sided wooden comb. A similar comb is held by a mermaid in fol. 70v.
• Ivory double comb with lovers in a garden, Paris, second quarter of the 14th century
• Lover speaks to Idleness, who combs her hair, Roman de la Rose (PML M.324, fol. 5v), c. 1350
• Ivory double-comb carved with the Adoration of the Magi and Annunciation, upper Italy, second half of the 14th century
• Ivory comb with dancers (?) at a fountain, northern Italian, late 14th century or early 15th century
• Susannah and the elders, Bible historiale (BNF Fr. 159, fol. 238), 14th-15th century
• A woman combs her hair in a pen-and-ink sketch c. 1400
• A woman (the constellation Virgo?) combs her hair, astrological treatises (PML M.785, fol. 4v), 1400-1403
• Ivory comb with scenes from legends (a joust on one side, two ladies on the other), France, beginning of the 15th century
• Incomplete double-sided one-piece comb of elephant ivory found in York dating to the 15th century
• 15th century birchwood comb
• 15th century boxwood comb inscribed "mon avis" and "pour bien"
• Comb in carved wood, 15th century Germany (also here)
• Ivory comb with the adoration of the Magi, 15th century
• Wooden liturgical comb, 15th century
• Comb, 15th century walrus or morse ivory, French
• Hagiography shows mirrors to Pilgrim, Pilgrimage of the Life of Man (British Library MS Cotton Tiberius A. VII, fol. 93), c. 1430-1450
• Ivory comb with painted carvings (the Fountain of Youth), Upper Rhine, c. 1450
• Ivory comb with the Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi, southern Netherlandish (?), c. 1450
• Late 15th century boxwood comb
• Detail from St. Elizabeth of Thuringia bathing the lepers in the Elizabeth Altarpiece from the Church of St. Agidius at Bardejov, c. 1480-1500
• Wooden comb, 15th-16th century
• Two wooden combs carved from boxwood (one with ivory[?] inlays), northern France, c. 1500; more photos here and here
• Ivory comb with the story of Bathsheba on one side and the Knight and the Three Graces on the other, Germany, beginning of the 16th century
• Ivory comb with carved openwork with small figures and a bust between medallions, grotesques, and gryphons; France, beginning of the 16th century
• Ivory comb with scenes from the story of David and Goliath, 16th century
• Oneida Iroquois antler comb, c. 1500-1550
• The Comb-Maker, Das Ständebuch, 1568
• Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio, c. 1598
• Portrait of Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southampton, c. 1600
• Allegory of Vanity by Jan Miense Molenaer, 1633

Sites where one can purchase medieval-style combs of different styles:

• Asgard Crafts
• Bodgit & Bendit
• Crossman Crafts
• Historic Enterprises
• Jelling Dragon
• Plimouth Plantation Craft Center Museum Shop
• Sally Pointer
• The Spanish Peacock
• VikingShips
• Weyland Reproductions